Naruto of the Seven Swordsmen
by sinisteruto
Summary: Naruto loses against Madara and Obito but in his attempts to escape Obito's kamui ends up travelling to the past. Now he has a chance to rewrite history, will he be the child of prophesy or will he be trapped in the cycle of hatred? Naruto/Mei pairing. Lemons in future chapters.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or any other series that I might use as inspiration.

**Chapter 1**

_**Revelation**_

Naruto frowned thoughtfully, a look of contemplation plastered on his facial features! The situation he found himself in was not one he thought any other person could say that they had found themselves in, unless this kind of thing happened to everyone who had died, which he pretty much doubted. It seemed that somehow, he had been transported to, or otherwise ressurected in either a different timeline, or different dimension...or both!

The last thing he remembered was his final battle with Madara, he and the old man had fought long and hard, cancelling each other out for most of the battle, it seemed the old man was even greater than legend had made him out to be, and had managed to counter everything that Naruto had thrown at him, but even through all that, Naruto never once doubted that he would win, he always knew, that no matter what happened, and no matter how strong the true founder of Akaktsuki seemed to be, that he would have a weakness that Naruto would eventually find and exploit.

But things didn't quite work out that well, Kakashi and Guy were defeated and killed by Obito and Naruto ended up having to fight Both Obito and his sensei, Madara, a deadly combination that had caused even his unwavering determination, and unending optimism to shatter into microscopic pieces. Eventually, Naruto was overpowered and sucked into Obito's Kamui! Kurama, with his and Naruto's remaining chakra reserves had used the rare ninja art, Yin/Yang release to try and manipulate the space-time manipulation of Kamui to their advantage, but the result of using an art that he barely knew of from his memories of the Sage of the Six Paths was something neither Kurama or Naruto could have expected.

_'Back then, I thought I had died from chakra exhaustion, or at least, I should have died from chakra exhuastion, but it seems like I have been transported to an alternate timeline sometime during the third shinobi world war, and ...it appears as though I am no longer a jinchuur...wait a minute! If I am now living in that era...that means that mom is still alive and she's the jinchuuriki!' _thought Naruto with wide eyes.

"What's wrong with this kid? He aint answering any of our questions, just sitting there with a stupid expression on his face! You think he's retarded?" asked Hoshigaki Kisame with a toothy grin, a monstrous looking teenager with light blue skin, white eyes, sharpened shark-like teeth,and dark flue fin styled hair, also spotting a set of gills on either of his cheeks. The 15 year old is wearing black shinobi pants, striped leg warmers, and blue ninja sandals on his lower half, spotting a dark blue sleevless top with a large belt wrapped around his torso, a belt that holds a giant sword that is attached to his back. The sword itself is wrapped in white bandages, only exposing the hilt of the word which has a small skull at the edge of the handle.

_'This is...Hoshigaki Kisame!' _thought Naruto with wide eyes, fearing for his life, a life that he now realised hinged at the mercy of the most sadistic member of the Akatsuki.

_'No...! What am I worried about...if recall what Aoba said correctly, than Kisame does not meet Obito until he kills his master...wait...he already has Samehada...that means...he is already allied with the Akatsuki!' _thought Naruto, trying with all his might to control his emotions, which was something, regrettably, he was never good at, silently making a vow to make that one of the first things he would work on if he managed to survive.

"Oooi Kisame! Stop scaring the poor kid, just look at him, it almost seems like his heart is about to collapse any second now!" admonished Hozuki Mangetsu mockingly, a 13 year old shinobi swordmen prodigy from the Hozuki clan with long white hair, purple eyes, and the shark like teeth of the seven swordsmen of the mist. He is wearing a black sleeveless top with grey shinobi pants, striped leg warmers and black ninja sandals. On his right hand is one of the legendary swords of the mist, the Nuibari, which he was using to restrain the blonde Uzumaki with, using the wire thread of the needle shaped sword to bind the blonde former jinchuuriki, the thread sinking into the boy who looked no older then 10 years old painfully, causing blood leaking wounds on his flesh. Held by a belt around Mangestu's waist is a scroll that contains the other legendary swords of the Hidden Mist Village, namely, the Hiramekai, the Lightning Dual Fangs, the Shibuki, and the Kabutowari.

_'No...! I must relax, if I am not mistaken, I should not be born yet in this timeline, Kisame doesn't know who I am and Akatsuki are still recruiting members, they have not started hunting tailed beasts yet. I'll be safe as long as I play my cards right!' _thought Naruto, taking a deep breathe in order to calm his nerves down.

_'So...I'm inside an interogation chamber in the Seven Ninja Swordsmen's Headquarters, or base of operations. As long as they don't have mind transfer techniques, I should be able to hide my past...or future...no future...but then it's my past! Aaarg! This is so confusing!' _thought the 10 year old looking prodigy, who is actually 16 years old mentally.

"Well you must have made quite an impression on him Kisame, I guess I shouldn't be surprised, you do seem to have that kind of relationship with most brats!" said the leader of the organisation, Momochi Zabuza, a 14 year old prodigy with short, spiky black hair with dark eys and small eyebrows, wearing white bandages around the lower half of his face with a Kiri forehead protector worn sideways across his head. He is wearing black sleeveless shirt with matching pants and sandals, and srtiped leg warmers. Across his torso is a thick belt holding the giant cleaver that is attached to his back, the Kubikiribocho.

"Please don't hurt me! I'm just an orphan trying to survive in the harsh wilderness! I haven't hurt anyone or done anything to you! Please don't hurt me!" cried Naruto pathetically, trying to play the innocent boy card, even using the puppy eyes technique in order to apeal to the goodness in the hearts of the most sadistic group of shinobi in the elemental nations.

"Nice try kozo, had it been anyone else, you might have successfully fooled us, that was the most impressive act I have ever seen! Demo...I'm a sensor type shinobi you see, and so is Kisame, and there are only two people alive that I know of with more chakra than you, and you're only ten years old if I'm not mistaken! You're no ordinary kid, we can tell that much! The way I see it, you only have two choices, one, tell us everything you know and everything about yourself, and we will decide what to do with you based on the story you tell...two, tell us lies or don't say anything and all, and we play a game where we see who amongst us can torture the information out of you...please choose the latter...!" said Mangetsu with a bloodthirsty smirk, scaring the living daylights out of the blonde Uzumaki.

_'Kuso, they saw right through me! I guess I have no choice but to talk, but I can't tell them everything, I'll just have to improvise!' _thought Naruto analytically.

"Okay! I'll talk, where do you want me to start?" asked the blonde Uzumaki.

"Why don't you start with your name?" asked/demanded Zabuza authoratively.

"Uzumaki Naruto of the late Uzumaki clan." said Naruto simply, causing the trio's eyes to widen in surprise.

"An Uzumaki huh...heh, I guess that would also explain the ridiculous chakra reserves...so you're a survivor of that clan huh, how interesting..." thought Mangetsu out loud.

"Interesting indeed, but also very suspicious, what were you doing in Kiri territory, I would have thought an Uzumaki would be looking to get into Fire Country, wasn't your home village allied with Konoha?" questioned Kisame curiously.

"Hai, but you see, I have only recently found out about my origins, like I said, I am an orphan." replied Naruto simply.

"And how did you find out about that?" demanded Zabuza.

"Well, I was raised by an old sage who recently passed away, leaving me to fend on my own, I don't think I have to tell you that he knew of my origins." equivocated the blonde impressively and successfully. It isn't like he was really lying, Jiraiya knew of his origins and had died recently in his timeline/dimension, also Jiraiya had known exactly who Naruto was. Even though Jiraiya never revealed such information to him, Naruto still managed to word it in a manner that would lead to the trio believing that he did, without Naruto actually saying that he did.

"I see, so that means you have been trained in the arts of ninjutsu, tell us about your skills, and what happened before we found you passed out?" asked Mangetsu curiously.

"Aaah well, I'm quite adapt at wind style techniques, clone techniques, and shape manipulation! That's about it really." replied Naruto with a small frown realising just how little his ninjutsu repoitre was.

"What kind of Uzumaki doesn't know any sealing or barrier techniques? Didn't this sage you were travelling with have even a basic knowledge of those arts?" asked Zabuza with slight disappointment, it wasn't a secret that the Ninja Swordsmen of Kiri were facing tough times recently, four members had recently died in an attempt to overthrow the tyrant of a mizukage, Yagura, and only Kisame had managed to return alive. Kisame was one of the youngest members of the organisation after killing his traitorous sensei and was only involved in the plan because of the power of the Samehada, Zabuza and Mangetsu however had not been involved, they were deemed too young and tasked with rebuilding the organisation should the others fail to kill the mizukage. After killing the supposed traitors, Yagura had ordered the remaining swordsmen to rebuild a more loyal organisation, and was so impressed that Kisame had been able to fend so well against him that he offered him a place back in the organisation if he were to accept to be the Mizukage's successor and right hand man.

Zabuza did not intend to dissapoint the Mizukage, he had every intention of rebuilding the organisation, but with a completely different purpose, this organisation would not be loyal to the Mizukage, it would be loyal to him, and they would help him overthrow the current Mizukage, Zabuza's plan was to become the Fifth Mizukage and build a stronger and better Kiri.

_'To just randomly stumble upon an Uzumaki, this is either a dream or the heavens must be on my side as well! An Uzumaki could be just what we need to defeat Yagura, the sealing arts of that clan could come in handy when fighting a jinchuuriki.' _thought Zabuza.

"Actually, he did...he just never bothered to teach them to me...for some unknown reason..." thought Naruto out loud with a disturbed expression showing on his face.

_'Come to think about it, mom said that seals and barriers were our specialty, our equivalent to a kekkei genkei, yet no one even bothered to at least let me know of this, much less teach me...why does it seem like everyone was trying their best to limit my growth! How much more obvious could it be, my jonin sensei was the Yondaime's student and my Master was said to have been a sealing master, yet none of them even mentioned sealing during training even though they knew I was an Uzumaki. Maybe I could have countered Obito's Kamui somehow if I had been able to uses seals and barriers.' _thought Naruto furiously.

"Tell me kid, have you ever thought about joining a hidden village before? We could use someone like you in our organisation, and it seems like you could use some one on one training as well! Tell you what, we'll not only let you live, but we'll even let you in on our Seven Ninja Swordsmen training, you'll get to wield one of the four remaining swords that are un-accounted for, also...during that training period, you'll be given access to all the sealing and barrier technques that Kiri has collected over the years. Finally, when your training has been completed, we'll allow you to travel back to the ruins of your homeland to see if you can't find any lost treasures, secret jutsu or heirlooms of the Uzumaki clan. When you have returned, we will allow you to help us create a stronger, better, and more peaceful Kiri. If you join us, you may very well become a legend amonst legends and you will contribute to the creation of a peaceful shinobi world, but if you refuse our offer, you will die right here and now...what say you?" asked the demon of the Mist in a demanding but at the same time inddiferent voice, trying to hide the eagerness in his tone.

_'So that's it huh...I either join or I die? I guess I have no choice in the matter, I'll have to join if I want to survive, besides, it's not like I can go back to Konoha now, it would be too suspicious, and they would interogate me with a mind transfer ninjutsu and find out all of my secrets. I'll have to work towards world peace from within the mist, besides, Konoha is shrouded in a lot of darkness now that I think about it, it is not the shining beacon that we were all lead to believe, Pain, Itachi, Sasuke, Me, and even mom, all of us have suffered because of Konoha.' _thought Naruto bitterly.

_'Also, I can't go around using rasengan, people will get susicious of me using the Yondaime Hokage's jutsu, and it won't be hard to realise my relation to him given our clone-like physical appearance, I also can't use sage mode as openly and freely as I was using it back then in the future, I'll only be able to use it in situations where I know that everyone who has seen it will die, can't let that kind of information leak out! So no rasengan and no sage mode, and a weaker body that needs to be retrained almost from scratch! i guess I really do need this training...fine then, I'll become a Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist and surpass all previous generations, and I will become the Godaime Mizukage! Heh...I've always been fascinated by those gigantic swords and the teeth are so cool! I can't believe I'm finally gonna look like that!' _thought Naruto with giddy anticipation.

"That's the best deal I could have hoped for, fine then, I'll join your organisation, Zabuza-senpei!" exclaimed Naruto with a toothy grin.

"Heh...look at that, the kid seems to have found his confidence! I wonder if he'll have the same expression when the tort...eh...training begins!" said Kisame with a sadistic grin causing Naruto to grin even wider.

"Bring it on Kisame-Senspei! I don't care how much pain you put me through, as long as it will make me stronger, then I'll embrace it!" responded the blonde with a toothy grin.

_'Kisame is going to betray the organisation and side with Yagura, or rather Obito, I'll have to find a way to get him on my side, or kill him if neccessary! Also, if I'm not mistaken, Obito will attack Konoha in just over two years, I'll have to get strong enough to stop him when the time comes, I may not be a Konoha shinobi anymore, but I can't allow Kaa-chan to just simply die when I can do something about it!' _thought Naruto with a determined expression.

"Hmmm...we'll see about that, first lesson, how to make better teeth." said Zabuza, molding five hand seals slowly so that the blonde could get them all, walking closer to the blonde as he did so until he was crouching down in front of him, placing his right hand at the blonde's jawline.

"This is the first technique you have to learn, **sharkman's jaw technique**!" exclaimed Zabuza with a sinister smile, chuckling maliciously at the blonde's expense, the blonde's screams of horror and agony snuffing out the sounds of the trio's laughter.

"Let this be a permanent mark that will remind you of who you are, from this day on you will thrive in the thrill of battle, smile at the sight of death, and bask in the blood of our enemies! You will remember, no matter where you go, and no matter what you do, that you are first and foremost a murderer, a ruthless and merciless killer who will do and risk even your soul for the benefit of your people! From this day onwards, you are Uzumaki Naruto of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, and you are the wielder of the Kabutowari!" exclaimed Zabuza with elation, this was one speech he would never get tired of.

"Aaaaarg! Gwaaaaah!" screamed Naruto in agony, feelings of doubt creeping into his conciousness as the interior of his mouth was painfully reconstructed.

_'What the hell have I gotten myself into...!' _ thought Naruto fearfully.

**End Chapter**

**Alright that was just the proloque, next chapter will be longer!**

**Pairing is Naruto/Mei**

**And yes I know, cliche time travel/dimension hoping start to the story, but I believe it will eventually deviate from other similar stories signifcantly.**

**I know some people might be skeptical about the sword that Naruto has chosen, or Zabuza has chosen for him, but I have great improvements in store for that sword, I think yaw will like em.**

**Anyway thanks for ready, peace.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or any other series I might use for inspiration.

**Chapter 2**

_**The Kyubi Attack**_

"If I remember correctly...this is the place that Obito extracted Kurama from Kaa-chan while dad was busy finding a safe place to hide me. This is perfect, I'll just hide out here and attack Obito just before he extracts the bijuu. I'll have to make it quick though...I don't fancy a threeway fight with the fake Madara and the Yellow Flash." thought a twelve year old Naruto out loud. He'd grown a lot since his swordsmen training, definitely a lot taller and more muscular than he used to be, and a lot stronger too, both physically and ninjutsu wise, compliments of the shadow clone training. He was wearing a sleeveless blue shirt with black shinobi pants and matching sandals, also wearing striped leg-warmers with a brown weapon's pouch on his right leg. A huge mallet-like weapon is attached to his back with golden coloured chains with a slight glow to them. One thing he was thankful for was that even without the Kyubi, he still had a ridiculous amount of chakra and it seemed Kurama's regeneration properties were still a part of him, which made his training a lot easier and faster.

True to his promise, Zabuza along with Kisame and Mangetsu had trained him in the secret arts of the Ninja Swordsmen, teaching him all standard swordsmen water techniques and their sword fighting styles, even the famous silent killing method. Zabuza also beseeched a man called Ao to teach Naruto about the barriers and seals of Kiri, a knowledge that he went on to improve upon with the knowledge that he obtained in the ruins of Uzushiogakure no Sato.

He'd even managed to create his own arsenal of space-time ninjutsu thanks to the knowledge he obtained in Uzu, one he named the **splitting void migration technique, **and the other called the** slashed throat migration technique. **Both jutsu were executed through a set of seals that were placed on his torso, ironically in the same spot that the **four** **symbols** **seal** that held Kurama used to be. The seals were similar in the manner that they worked but different at the same time, similar in the sense that both seals worked in a similar manner to a navigator, constantly calculating and re-calculating the co-ordinates of Naruto's position and the position that he wanted to transport himself to, in other words, the co-ordinates of the exact location where he wanted to open a portal in. This is a facet Naruto had added onto the seal in order to make the two jutsu battle usable, as he wouldn't be able to fight and calculate co-ordinates during battle, he would die before he came close to even teleporting had that been the case, this way however, the seal did the job for him and all he had to focus on was the battle itself.

The difference between the two jutsu was simple, one was an instant transportation from one point to another, in other words, simply opening a space-time tunnel to another location whereas the other was more similar to kamui, open a dark portal that split the space in a manner reminescent of a slashed throat, the portal would lead to another dimension that Naruto had created with his space-time manipulation, this one allowed him to counter ninjutsu by opening this portal in front him, sending the jutsu to another dimention altogether. The jutsu was slower than the **splitting void migration **but had a much wider area of effect. Basically, instead of placing markers on people, weapons, and surfaces like his father did, Naruto simply calculates co-ordinates with his seal and subsequently jumps to that location.

_'I'll have the element of surprise in this situation, if I time my attack perfectly, I could end this once and for all!' _thought Naruto as the golden chains attached to his giant mallet burst out in all directions around him, forming a square barrier that soon disappeared into nothingness along with him, Naruto activating an advanced cloaking barrier.

**000000000000**

"Kushi-chan...arigatou! You've given me a wonderful daughter...she looks just as beautiful as you, it's amazing!" exclaimed Minato happily as he held his wife's hand affectionately.

"Minato-koi..." muttered Kushina with a cute blush, a look of gratitude and adoration visble on her facial features.

"Right! Before anything else, let me repair the seal quickly!" said Minato joyously, moving to place his hand over the seal, only to be abruptly interupted, a loud death scream echoing throughout the cave, Sarutobi Biwako and her assistant, Taji falling dead on the ground. Minato turned around only for his and Kushina's eyes to widen in horror at the site before them, a man wearing a red spiral mask with long, hooded cloak somehow having breached the barrier that was set up without their knowledge, but even worse, holding their new born daughter at kunai point.

"Namikaze Minato...step away from the jinchuuriki or your daughter will die at the ripe old age of two minutes..." threatened the figure in a gruff and sinister tone.

"Wait a minute, don't do anything hasty, try to relax!"

"Oh I'm very relaxed Yondaime Hokage, if anything, you're the one that seems to be in a panic..." trailed off the masked figure, throwing baby Natsumi up into the air before jumping up after her, kunai in hand poised to stab the baby through the skull, only to miss by an inch as the Yellow Flash shunshined past him, taking baby Natsumi with him as he embraced her like she was a lost treasure.

"Very fast...you truly live up to the Yellow Flash moniker, but what will you do now..." drawled the masked figure, placing his right hand in a ram hand seal, activating the explosive tags that were attached to Natsumi's baby blanket.

"Kuso!" cursed the Yondaime, however, with his super fast reflexes able to detach the blanket from the baby, throw it away towards the masked figure, and jump out of the cave before the emplosives detonated, creating quite a huge explosion that completely decimated the cave.

_'He used Natsumi to seperate me and Kushina-chan...that can only mean one thing, he's after the Kyubi!' _thought a surprised Minato, eyes wide in realisation.

_'But I have to get Natsumi to safety first, hold on just a little longer Kushi-chan!' _Thought Minato with determination, disappearing from the spot that he had landed on, leaving behind a small breeze of air behind, instantly appearing at his house in the outskirts of the village inside Natsumi's room.

"I'm going to leave you on your own for a little while, dad has to go and get mommy back from the bad guy, just hold on a little bit, I'll bring mommy back to you...I promise." said Minato, placing baby Natsumi inside her crib, giving her a light kiss on the forehead and then disappearing again, using the **flying thunder god technique **to transport himself back to his wife, hoping to get there in time to save her.

**0000000000**

"Minato uses a complex sealing formula to teleport between locations that he has managed to mark, and has incorporated that same sealing formula into the seal that contains the Kyubi...he wanted to be able to protect you at all times...yet I have managed to seperate you from him...!" said the masked figure with his right hand in a ram hand sign, excecuting a complex sealing jutsu that held Kushing tightly bound in between two pillars.

"W-who are you...and what do you want with the Kyubi...?" breathed out Kushina in her weakened state from trying to hold back the Kyubi while giving birth.

"I will extract the Kyubi from you and use it to destroy Konoha, with the Kyubi under my control, you people will have no hope!" exclaimed the masked figure, making direct eye contact with Kushina, the tamoe in his sharingan spinning rapidly.

_'This is it!' This is the moment I've been waiting for!' _thought Naruto, using the **splitting void migration **to teleport himself to the masked figure's location, attacking him from his blind spot with instantaneous speed, swinging the **Kabutowari **violently and mercilessly, slamming hard into the unsuspecting masked man's back.

The power behind the swing, combined with the monstrous power of the mallet itself, which is said to be able to break any and all defenses was so great that the masked figure flew at speeds that would make Shunshin no Shishui jealous, so much so that the man flew for 600 metres before crashing into a mountain side, smashing right through the mountain and slamming head first into the ground, unable to even activate his **space-time migration**, falling into a near death like state almost instantly, the middle of his torso completely blown off along with his organs, the only thing keeping him alive being Hashirama Senju's cells that were implanted into him, but even that wouldn't keep him alive for more than five minutes with his heart exposed to the world, beating slower and slower by the minute.

'_Kuso! Tobi's in trouble, I think he might be dead! __**Shup up, I'm trying to concentrate!' **_thought white and black Zetsu respectively, the contrast of personalities clashing as usual.

_**'I can still sense his chakra, quickly, make a sporulation clone and have it merge with him! We can't afford for him to die! **__Alright! I'm already on it! I'll have him back on his feet in no time at all!' _thought Zetsu from his hiding spot on the ground, using his _**mayfly technique **_to completely extinguish his chakra signature by merging with the earth.

The sealing jutsu that was holding Kushina in place vanished almost instantly, causing her to fall pace first into the dirt, only to be caught in a bridal embrace moments before she made connection with the hard and unforgiving surface.

"Are you alright?" asked Naruto with a small smile, asking what he knew to be a rhetorical question, she was definitely alive and was going to live no matter what, he would make sure of that.

"Hai...arigatou Minato-kun...I-I love you so much!" answered Kushina with a dazzling smile, happy that the love of her life had come through for her once again.

"Hehehe...sorry, but I'm afraid that you have mistaken me for someone else, my name is Uzumaki Naruto, I am a distant relative of yours." said Naruto smoothly, lying through his teeth yet at the same time not lying at all. His real mother was in another timeline and this woman had given birth to someone else, so technically, she wasn't his mother, yet at the same time he was still an Uzumaki and hence was a relative of hers. He used the phrase 'distant relative' simply because he was from a distant timeline, and hence, Kushina, even with her shinobi prowess was unable to detect any lies from him.

"W-what...!" exclaimed Kushina in surprise, finding it hard to believe what the man had just told her, in fact, taking a closer look, Kushina realised that indeed this wasn't her Minato-koi, for one, this was not even a man, but a young boy who could not have been over the age of fourteen, and he had whisker like markings on his cheeks that Minato-koi didn't have. In fact, if she didn't know any better, she could have sworn that he was Minato's son...

"Aaaaaaaaah!" cried out Kushina in shock, trying to wriggle herself out of the blonde Uzumaki's embrace.

"What's wrong, is it the Kyubi?" asked Naruto with concern.

"Y-y-you're Minato's ilegitimate child aren't you? That bastard! How could he do this to me!" exclaimed Kushina furiously, completely overeacting in light of the situation.

"W-what? No way, stop jumping to conclusions like that! I told you I'm your distant relative, I'm from the Uzumaki Clan!" retorted Naruto in a panic.

"Yeh, and I'm the sage of the six paths! There's no such thing as an Uzumaki with blonde hair, my kinsman have always had red hair!" retorted a livid Kushina.

"So what, I'm the exception! Besides, only one of my parents was an Uzuamki...!"

"Even so, our bloodline is dorminant, it should have...kyaaaah!" screamed out Kushina in agony.

"What is it? What's wrong?" asked Naruto frantically.

"It's the seal...the Kyubi's trying to break out! Go get Minato...hurry!" exclaimed Kushina with a pained and concerned expression.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of it!" said Naruto, placing Kushina on the floor gently.

_'This seal is a secret kinjutsu of the Uzumaki clan, if I am able to repair the seal, it will prove to her that I am a true Uzumaki!' _thought Naruto, unable to believe how close Kushina was to hitting the bull's eye about his identity.

"Alright, here goes nothing!" said Naruto, placing his right hand over the seal after going through a set of hand seals that had Kushina's eyes wide is surprise, recognising exactly what jutsu the blonde boy who saved her life was using on her.

The blonde put his fingers on the seal and twisted his hand in an anti-clockwise direction, tightening the seal that was holding the Kyubi back.

"You...you really are..."

"An Uzumaki, yes, I told you so didn't I?" asked Naruto with an 'I told you so' expression, offering his hand to Kushina, pulling up a pouting Kushina back to her feet.

"How was I supposed to know! I've never seen an Uzumaki quite like you before, nor have I heard of one!" whined a stubborn Kushina, looking away from the blonde with her head held high.

_'Kaa-chan, I'm so happy that you're okay, even if you can't be my mother in this timeline, just knowing that you're okay and happy is more than okay for me, even though it hurts a lot.' _thought Naruto, looking at Kushina with eyes full of affection, causing Kushina, who had just turned around to look back at the blonde to avert her eyes from him, a light blush forming on her cheeks.

_'Why is he looking at me like that, could he have developed an infatuation for me already, or...has he been stalking me, I mean, how did he know to come here and save me?' _thought Kushina in horror, her wild imagination getting the better of her.

_'Dad has marked her with his hiraishin formula, and he should be arriving anytime soon now, if I am caught here when he arrives...he'll mistake me for the enemy and attack me, I better get going now!' _ thought Naruto.

"It has been nice meeting you Kushina-sama, but I best be going now, I need to check on the body, gotta confirm that the masked guy is really dead." said Naruto.

"Wait! I'll come with you!" said Kushina hastily, not wanting to let her savior out of her sights just yet, especially considering who and what he is to her, but it was too late because Naruto already had his technique activated, the blonde disappearing into a portal and instantly jumping to a different location in the direction that he'd sent the masked man.

**0000000000000**

_'Kuso! What the hell was that? I'm pretty sure that Minato-sensei has never placed a tag on me, and I was at a far enough distance from Kuhsina that he couldn't have accidentally teleported to my blind spot! So what...who...?' _ Obito's only visble eye widened in surprise when he sensed a new presence arriving, a blonde kid manifesting himself from a space-time void right in front of him, a boy that he very much recognised too.

_'This is...Uzumaki Naruto...this is the boy that was apprenticed to that organisation! Kisame told me he went back to the old Whirlpool Ruins on a personal errend...what is he doing here than...and what is that jutsu?' _ thought Obito wearily.

Up until that moment, Obito could have told you that he knew almost everything about the boy, that he was an Uzumaki, that he was good with wind and water style jutsu, that he was a member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of Kiri, that he was good at kenjutsu, that he was learning seals and barriers from Ao. In fact, Obito had allowed all of this to happen, not without reason of course, if the boy continued to grow as fast as he had been growing, and continued to improve on his natural talent, then he could have become one of his Akatsuki recruits along with Kisame, and they would have made a very potent team, having trained together in that organisation and all. Zabuza and Mangetsu were the pawns that he planned to use to get the boy on his side, the pain of loss was always a good tool to use as motivation, and with the bloodline purges that he planned to implement a few years from now, Naruto would have been dancing under his palm before he knew it.

"Uzumaki Naruto...what a surprise, I did not expect to meet someone like you here." said the masked man casually, as if his cloak and shirt were not blown and torn up from the earlier assault that he was subjected to, revealing a however uninjured torso.

_'This is weird, I was sure that I blew out his organs with the __**kabutowari**__, and his torn outfit seems to be proof of my attack, also, I was able to use a minuscile amount of sage chakra to monitor his chakra signature, the one moment his signature was weak and almost completely vanquished, and the next thing he is completely restored...does he have self-healing like Tsunade?' _thought the blonde wearily.

"Your plan has failed, you were unable to extract the Kyubi and I have repaired Kushina-sama's seal! You have no hope, because I'm going to kill you right now and right here...Uchiha Obito." stated Naruto matter of factly, causing the masked man's one visble eye to widen in surprise.

"Masaka...you...just who are you? And how do you know about me?" demanded a completely surprised Obito, a forebording feeling settling at the pit of his soul.

"I make it my business to investigate the mysteries of the shinobi world, beyond that, I owe you no explanations!" replied Naruto, ending the conversation prematurely, now adopting a battle ready stance and expression.

_'Alright...two things I have to remember, one, I have to aim for the moment where he attacks, because he has to materilize himself in order to touch me, and two, I have to aim for the moment when he tries to suck himself in to escape, because he has to materialize himself before he can suck himself in, and he takes longer to suck himself in then he does to suck in other people in...it will be a bit tricky, but I'll get him.' _thought Naruto, summoning the axe of the Kabutowari from a seal on his left wrist and subsequently dropping the weapon onto the surface of the earth, the heavy weapon creating a sizeable dent on the surface, showing just how heavy the weapon was.

_'How did he know I would be here today, how did he know I wanted the Kyubi, and how does he know my true identity...!' _thought Obito frantically.

_'Nevertheless, this guy knows too much about me already, I'll have to kill him right here , I can't afford to let him escape!' _thought a furious Obito

"I won't allow anyone to interfere, it will be a battle between just the two of us." said Naruto, blazing through a set of hand seals quickly before stopping at a ram hand seal. As soon as he finished, the golden chains that were attached to the Kabutowari expended and multiplied, forming a huge dome-like barrier around the the duo.

_'Minato-sensei teleports within the space around his jutsu formulae, I see, he intends to stop Minato-sensei's marked kunai from getting anywhere near us, this way, he won't be able to teleport to us and interfere with the battle...he intends to take me down on his own.' _thought Obito.

"You think that you can defeat me on your own? You're underestimating me, Uzumaki Naruto." said Obito ominously.

"So you know who I am huh? Just as I thought, you're the one controlling Yagura with a genjutsu, isn't that right, Obito?" asked Naruto rhetorically. Of course, he already knew that from the time Aoba read Kisame's mind in his timeline, but he had to pretend that he'd only confirmed it right now for appearances sake, can't have people knowing that he was from the future now could he.

Obito on the other hand twitched irritably, this little brat was going to ruin everything! First he stopped Konoha's Kyubi attack prematurely, then he discovered his true identity, and now he knew about the Mizukage, this day was just getting worse and worse by the second.

_'That barrier...? That is the Uzumaki clan's yin/yang release, the power to give form and durabilty to chakra, the power to create non living objects out of physical energy alone, and then use that same physical energy to suppliment sealing and barrier techniques! But how...this is Kushina's jutsu, where could he have learned it, me and Zetsu already checked the Uzu ruins and found absolutely nothing, where could he have come across this type of ninjutsu?' _ thought Obito, fear creeping out from the depths of his heart, watching in awe as the chains extended from the axe of the Kabutowari and formed a huge dome-like barrier around the duo.

_'There! Found you, I won't let you get away dattebane!' _ thought Kushina, running in the direction of the dome hastily, not prepared to lose her only connection to her former home, not willing to lose what could be her only living relative.

_'Those are the yin/yang release chains, Naruto-kun, you really are...what the hell dattebane!' _thought a shocked Kushina, onceagain, caught in a bridal style embrace by a blonde haired and blue eyed male figure.

"Are you alright Kushi-chan? Where's that masked guy?" asked Minato in quick succession

"Minato-kun, hurry, we have to go and help him, he saved me from the masked guy dattebane!" exclaimed a flustered Kushina.

"What? Go where, help who?" asked Minato hastily.

"Look behind you baka! We have to go and save my cousin!" exclaimed Kushina in frustration. Minato, heading his wife's advice, turned around and, to his utter surprise, saw a giant barrier made of golden chains.

_'That's Kushina's jutsu...but how?' _thought Minato before his eyes widened in realisation, Kushina's earlier words replaying in his mind like a mantra,

"Did you say...cousin?" asked Minato, looking at his wife with a scrutinizing stare.

"Yes that's what I said dattebane! Aaarg! Sometimes you can be so slow!" exclaimed Kushina in exasperation.

"Now hurry, we have to save him!" ordered Kushina.

"O-okay, but let me fix your seal before we..."

"The seal is fine! Naruto-kun fixed it!" cut in Kushina.

"B-but how, that is an Uzumaki clan secret jutsu! How could he...nevermind!" replied Minato hastily, realising just how stupid that sounded, after all, she did just say that this Naruto person was her cousin, so if anyone, he would know how to fix an Uzumaki kinjutsu.

"Alright, I'll help your cousin, you take care of Natsumi so long." said Minato, forming a one handed ram hand sign.

"No, I have to..." Kushina never got to finish what she wanted to say, diappearing from Minato's embrace in an instant, Minato teleporting her back to their house, inside Natsumi's room and next to her crib to be exact.

"I'm sorry Kushi-chan, but you're not in any condition to fight right now, also, you're that masked guy's target, it is better that you stay far away from this battle. I'll save your cousin for you, I promise" thought Minato out loud, staring at the barrier with an analytical mind.

_'If he's setting up something like that, then he must be trying to stop anyone from interfering with the battle, unfortunately, I'm not just anyone!' _thought Minato with determination, throwing a tri-pronged kunai towards the barrier at blinding speeds,

_'Who is the masked guy? How did he know that Kushina's seal would weaken during childbirth? How did he break through a Konoha secret barrier without detection? Is he related to Uchiha Madara? And why does he want to do with the Kyubi? These are questions I need answers for in order to properly protect my family and village, and the answers are inside that barrier!' _thought Minato before vanishing from the spot on which he was standing with the **flying thunder god technique**.

"Uzumaki Naruto, you've matured and grown into a thorn on my backside, not the flower that I had planned for you to blossom into. It looks like I'm going to have to kill you, what a shame, you would have made such a useful pawn." said the Obito venomously, connecting a handcuffed chain to both of his wrists.

"Hn, so you were planning to use me like you did the Mizukage, like you're using Kisame-senpei?" asked Naruto, causing Obito's lone visible eye to widen in horror.

"It's over for you Obito, nothing you do is ever going to succeed, I have already converted Kisame-senpei to my side, and I have marked the Mizukage with a **space tracking seal**, I will find him and release him from your genjutsu, you have absolutely no hope!" said Naruto victoriously, slamming the painful reality at the masked figure of Obito.

He was lying through his teeth though, there was no such thing as a **space tracking seal**, at least not yet. It was a jutsu he was working on, a jutsu that was maybe a few years away from being completed. He just told Obito that he'd marked the Mizukage so that he wouldn't return to Yagura's side again for fear that Naruto would be able to find and attack him at will if he did.

The story about earning Kisame's loyalty was also a lie, he hadn't even talked to Kisame about peace yet, nor had he mentioned anything to him about Obito, but Obito didn't have to know about that, he was going to die anyway, and even if he survived and managed to escape, he would probably not be returning to Kiri anytime soon because he would believe that he'd lost the Sanbi and lost Kisame's loyalty as well. As far as he would be concerned, there would be nothing in Kiri for him to return to, and that would buy Naruto enough time to do something about Kisame and to remove the genjutsu placed on Yagura.

_'Still, I'll probably be forced to get rid of Kisame anyway. It will be impossible to trust a man who has killed so many of his own comrades, even if it was under orders from the Mizukage. Also, for all I know, he could take my side only to end up acting as a double, or even tripple agent. In the end, his past actions have made his character too questionable. Right now, he's just a loose end that must be cut down, after all, how can I trust a man who doesn't even know who he is?' _thought Naruto.

"Bastard! Just who the hell are you?" exclaimed Obito, uncharacteristically losing his composure.

"Oh...I thought you knew already, I'm the guy that's going to kill you!" shouted Naruto, running at the masked Obito purposefully.

"Hn, we'll see about that!" exclaimed Obito viciously, running at the blonde Uzumaki with equal vigor.

_'I remember this strategy, it's the same one that he used to defeat me in the future. If I'm not mistaken, he's going to allow me to faze through him, and then he's going to materialize himself and trap me with those __**chakra absorbtion chains. **__In that case, I'll get him as soon as he materializes himself.' _thought Naruto, attempting to use his super reflexes to slam his mallet against his advasory's face, only to faze through the mysterious figure. But, true to Naruto's prediction, Obito materialized himself and pulled his arms around his torso, hoping to capture the blonde Uzumaki with his chain technique and have him at his mercy.

_'Gotcha!' _thought Naruto with a devious smirk. Naruto disappeared a split second before he made contact with the chains into a void in the space, appearing right in front of the masked Obito, who had absolutely no chance to react at all, the blonde smashing the mallet of the Kabutowari against Obito's mask with all his might.

"Gwaaaah!" cried Obito in shock and pain.

So unexpected was the attack that he didn't even get a chance to prepair for the impact, which was good if you were on Naruto's side, because Obito would have just made himself intangible if he'd had that chance. The power behind the attack was so great that it re-shaped the whole terrain, the whole earth caving in on itself as Obito flew away, his body digging a long and deep trench on the ground.

_'That was a direct hit to the head. It's over, his head should be completely obliterated, he won't survive that.' _thought a self-assured Naruto, however, still not willing to let his guard down against such a formidable foe, waiting on full alert and eagerly for the dust and debris to settle down so that he could confirm his kill. It was also because of this kind of vigilance that Naruto was able to avoid an unexpected attack from his blind spot, teleporting himself to a spot eight metres away from where he was standing on the right side, which placed him at a position where he could anticipate an attack from both the direction that Obito's body had landed and where the new threat had just recently landed.

"That was close, how did you break through my barrier, Yondaime Hokage?" asked Naruto curiously, not really sure whether to be surprised or not considering who he was dealing with here.

"It seems you have intel about my jutsu somehow, why don't you try and figure it out yourself, Naruto-san." retorted Minato with narrowed eyes.

"Oh...what made you come to that conclusion?" asked Naruto, cocking his head to side with a curious gaze.

"You double layered that barrier and made it so that it was eight metres thick, and right now, you're standing exactly eight metres away from me. That says a lot about how much you know about me, it's no coincidence that the limit of my jutsu just so happens to be seven metres. You were counting on the fact that I can only warp myself at the maximum of seven square metres of the space around my jutsu formular, therefore, because the barrier was eight metres thick, you concluded that I would be unable to bypass it and attack you." explained Minato, tightening his hand on the kunai that he was holding to calm his nerves, the same kunai that he had caught just before it made contact with Naruto when he teleported to it.

"Seems like I might have underestimated you, so tell me, just how did you manage to bypass my barrier?" asked an intrigued Naruto.

"You made a common mistake, thinking that I only know how to warp myself and other people, demo...that is very far from the truth." explained Minato vaguely, not willing to give away some of his secrets needlessly.

"I see...than, that means you can warp the space around your jutsu formula itself, in other words, you must have continuously warped the immediate space around your kunai as it travelled, which would have allowed the kunai to faze right through the barrier, or rather, to pass through the opening that you warped when your kunai made contact with my barrier. And then, when the kunai had entered the space on the other side of the barrier, you simply warped yourself to that same kunai. Impressive, I never thought you could use the **hiraishin **like that, this jutsu is more versatile than I thought." praised Naruto, genuinely impressed with the versatility of his father's jutsu.

"Liar, you already thought that I could do that, you just were not sure about your theory. You used this barrier as a means to find out more about my technique, as a sort of test. The best part of your plan is that you also knew, that as Hokage, I would have no choice but to infiltrate your barrier in order to gain the information required to protect my village. You're very manipulative individual Naruto-san." said Minato, shamelessly accusing the blonde Uzumaki.

"Hn, a very insightful individual you are indeed Minato-san, demo...I was hoping that you would stay away from this and rather take care of Kushina-sama. She is the last living Uzumaki I know of besides myself, and she is the heiress of our clan, because of that, she is very precious to me. Go to her side and make sure she is okay, I will handle everything here." ordered Naruto.

_'I' need to get him out of here, I'd prefer he doesn't find out about Obito, it will just cause needless pain and confusion, and he might turn against me if he realises that I just killed his former student.' _thought Naruto wearily.

"Kushina-chan's safety is my priority, why do you think I have come here? The information I gather here might help me do a better job protecting her in the future. Also, it would be to her benifit if I can eliminate the masked guy right here and now." argued Minato.

"Hmmm...so I won't be able to get you to back down huh?" asked Naruto.

"No, you won't, I will do this with or without your consent. The only thing you can do for me is to either help me or stay out of the way. I'd prefer if you just stayed out of this, you're just a kid, there is no need for you to risk your life needlessly." replied Minato seriously.

"Heh, how cocky, did you forget that I was the one who saved your wife for you? That guy would have extracted the Kyubi, Kushina-sama would be dead, and your village would be under attack by the Kyubi if I hadn't interceded, and now you think you can act all high and mighty over me?" asked a bewildered Naruto.

"That's not it, Kushi-chan pleaded that I protect you and return you to her safely, she doesn't want to lose the last link she has to her former home, she was really worried about you." explained Minato.

_'She pleaded for him to save me, tche...Kaa-chan, you have such a pure heart.' _thought Naruto nostalgically.

"You say that now, yet you attacked me only a few minutes ago." stated Naruto matter of factly.

"When Kushina told me that you were her cousin, I thought, that if you're anything like her, you'd be incredibly stubborn and refuse to back down. So I thought I would incapacitate you and take you back to Kushina while I deal with the masked guy." explained Minato.

"Incapacitate me? Yeah right, you meant to capture me didn't you?" retorted Naruto.

"Well, we can't afford to let you join our shinobi forces without following standard protocol, you'll have to go through a standard interogation to ascertain your intentions with Konoha." explained Minato defensively.

"I see, then let me ask you this, who said I wanted to join your hidden village?" asked Naruto rhetorically.

"W-what? B-but I thought..."

"Thought what? That I would become just another one of Konoha's puppets? You must be out of your mind! Listen carefully Minato, what I did here today was not for Konoha, it was solely for Kushina-sama, I have absolutely no interest in joining your village." replied Naruto with a serious expression, shocking Minato considerably, the yellow flash mentally cursing himself for jumping to conclusions.

"I'm sorry, but I cannot allow you to just leave like that, Kushina-chan would be devasted..."

"Oh please! Stop using her as a scapegoat to justify your actions, you want to capture me to use my Uzumaki lineage for Konoha, also, you think that I'll be a lose end if I leave because I know too much. I can see right through you!" exclaimed Naruto in exasperation.

"That may be true, but that does not change the facts, Kushina would be devasted if you just left like that. Also, I don't understand why you are so much against joining Konoha, the Uzumaki clan were once our dear allies, some of them even considered Konoha a home away from home in the past. Why do you have so much animosity towards us?" asked Minato curiously.

"I have my reasons, that's all I have to say to..." Naruto sensing a presence manifesting behind himself, spun around with his impressive reflexes, swinging his mallet against Obito, only for his attack to faze through the back of Obito's head, who was rising up from below the surface using his intangibility. Obito, sensing that the mallet had completely fazed through, swiftly spun around and caught the blonde's wrist firmly, making eye contact with the blonde with his now exposed face on display.

"The real battle begins now, and it's over!" exclaimed Obito, activating his **space-time migration **from his right eye and sucking the blonde into his dimension in an instant, trapping him there for the foreseeble future, closing the portal after he was sure that the troublesome brat was gone.

"N-Naruto! What did you do to him?" asked Minato hysterically.

"He has gone to a better place, you can join him too if you want, in fact, I insist that you do, Minato-sensei." replied Obito nonchalantly, not feeling the need to pretend anymore now that his mask was broken.

_'Good thing he didn't know about the durability of the special material that my mask was made of, otherwise I would be dead now.' _thought a relieved Obito.

"O-Obito...is that you?" asked a wide eyed Minato, shock written clearer than the sun itself all over his face.

"Hn, you still recognise me even wth this disfigured face, you have good eyes, Minato sensei." said Obito with an uncaring tone.

**End Chapter**

**That's it for now, relatively short chapter I know, but the next one will be longer, so don't worry about chapter length and stuff like that.**

**Anyway hope yaw enjoyed the chapter, for those of you who read my other stories, you'll be glad to know that I'm on an extended holiday right now. Meaning, that I will be posting a new chapter for one of my stories on at least a weekly basis. **

**Right now I'm working on chapter 2 of Demonic Slavery, chapter 4 of Ichigo of The Detention Unit, and chapter 14 of The Hope Of Oto. **

**I've also been thinking about starting a Naruto/ X-men crossover with a Naruto/Mystique pairing, but I'm not sure if I should persue that idea just yet.**

**Anyway thanks for the read, and keep it real.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or any other series/movie that I might use for inspiration.

**Chapter 3**

"Obito...no way, you must be an imposter, Obito is definitely dead." retorted Minato with conviction, struggling, or maybe even simly refusing to believe what he was seeing with his own two eyes.

"Yes, and I suppose that you were there when I supposedly died, you witnessed my death with your own eyes and you did an autopsy on my body before you burried me, right, Minato-sensei?" asked Obito with condensing sarcasm.

"N-no uh, well, t-that's not it..." Minato stuttered.

_'Actually, now that I think about it, he does have quite a point. Kakashi and Rin were the last ones to see Obito, and he was alive the last time they saw or touched him, all they saw were a number of rocks falling over him. Namely, they just assumed he was dead because anyone else would and should have died under the same conditions, unless...unless that person has the ability to faze through solid objects.'_ thought Minato.

_'Also, it was reported that Obito's right side had been crushed by a boulder when he offered Kakashi his other eye, and this guy not only looks like Obito, but has a disfigured right side of the face. Which means...'_

"Oh...?" was Obito's only response, cocking his head to the side curiously.

"It is not your physical appearance or even your body that I'm doubting, killing Sandaime-sama's wife and her assitant along with four black orps, trying to do the same to Kushina and Natsumi, attempting to steal the Kyubi and attacking the Yondaime Hokage? All of these acts constitute the highest level of treason, Obito would have never done something like that, the real Obito loved Konoha and it's people with all of his heart, he was a kind, gentle, and peace-loving person, he even had a dream to become the next Hokage. You're not him, Obito would never do the things that you did here today." replied Minato in denial, even though, deep down, he knew what he was seeing to be the truth.

_'This guy has the ability to faze through solid objects, I suppose if he was really Obito, it could be argued that he survived the rock avalanche by fazing through the rocks that were falling on him, but still...' _

"So you're finding it hard to believe that your own student would attempt to kill you and your family? Hn, as if you have a right to be surprised, none of this would have happened if you'd been a good sensei and not left your team to fend for themselves. Because of your careless attitude, Rin died and I also could have been killed, did you really think there wouldn't be any consequences for your actions?" asked Obito retorically.

"You and Rin were already chuunin, and Kakashi was a Jonin, you were experienced enough to handle yourselves, you didn't even need a jonin-sensei by that time, chuunin and jonin level shinobi are expected to lead teams on their own at times when it becomes neccessary. Also, it's not like I didn't want to be there for my students, just that, my hands were full with a whole Iwa battalion at the time, I did return as soon as I could though, but...it was too little too late. In any case, I guess you really are Obito, and all of these crimes you're committing are for your revenge because Rin died, isn't that right, Obito?" asked Minato with narrowed eyes.

"Revenge huh? Close, but not quite...you're thinking way too small, why would I go through all that trouble for something as petty as revenge? You've got it all wrong Minato-sensei, my intentions are far more noble than that, I'm not that shallow you know...despite what you may believe." replied Obito.

_'Okay, his character is completely different, he seems a lot calmer and smarter than Obito used to be, but he has spoken about some things that only Obito would know, and judging from his reaction when I mentioned Rin, he's definitely Obito.' _thought Minato.

"Than, if not for revenge, why do all of this?" asked Minato.

"I don't expect you to understand or agree with me, but I'll tell you, since you're about to die anyway. Minato-sensei, this world is cruel, corrupt, and incredibly flawed, a world where people can attain their own happiness at the expense of others, a world that sacrifices too many people for the happiness of a few. Those who have suffered start wars for revenge against those who have gained at their expense, and then those who had revenge taken against them start more wars for their own justice, and so, the cycle of hatred continues throughout the ages. I have decided that I am sick and tired of this world that only provides opportunities for pain and suffering, and so, my long term plan is to create a perfect world. A world without pain, a world without suffering, a world without casualties, a world without sacrifices, a world without tears, a united shinobi world, and...a world where Rin can be alive and happy again." explained Obito.

"A world where Rin is alive again?" asked Minato in surprise.

"Hai, I don't care about this world anymore, why should I, when I can create a whole new one where everything is perfect. That goes for you too, Minato-sensei, it doesn't matter if I kill you, Kushina-san, and your daughter to further my ambitions, because you will live again with your family in my perfect world. You once said that you believed that the world would one day be united, and you said that would be followed by an ever lasting peace. If this is what you truly believe, than why don't you hand over the Kyubi, surrender yourself, and allow me to proceed with my plan, better yet, why don't you join me? Think about it, you and I have the same dream, we shouldn't be fighting against each other, we should be working together. If we can combine our power and resources, we could achieve our goal sooner rather than later." proposed Obito charismatically.

"The world is not good enough and so destroy it and build a new and perfect one? That sounds like something a devine being would do, except, you're not that devine being, you're just a human." retorted Minato.

"Yes, but together, we can reach the heights of divinity, we can overthrow this cruel god that exists and recreate the world as we see fit...we can become the gods of the new world. Think about it Minato-sensei, you don't have to do it for yourself, just think about all the pain and suffering that your wife had to endure in this cursed world, all the hate and malice that was directed towards her as a jinchuuriki. Think about your daughter, what kind of future do you think she has in this cursed shinobi world? Her life was in danger only a few minutes after her birth and she almost lost her mother before ever getting the chance to know her. This life is fickle and feeble in it's entirety and promises nothing but pain and suffering, but...but you can change that, we...can change that! If you truly love your family and friends, you'll join me and help me create a better world for them." offered Obito convincingly.

_'I see, I think I finally understand him, he has really grown up hasn't he, and so have his dreams and objectives. Rather than becoming Hokage and ensuring peace for Konoha, he has expanded his vision to include the whole of humanity itself, namely, he seeks not only peace for his own people, but for the world itself. I would have been proud, if his methods were not so...inhumane.' _thought Minato nostalgically.

"Okay, I'll join you, but...only after you share all the details of your plan step by step, and don't leave anything out, I'll know if you do." declared Minato.

"Alright, I will tell you everything you want to know, but only after you prove your loyalty and dedication to our cause..." trailed off Obito with a sinister undertone.

"What do you want me to do?" asked Minato, eyes narrowed in suspision.

"Deliver the Kyubi, and I shall tell you everything. As a symbol and a labourer of peace, one must be able to extinguish their individuality and thus, think and act in a way that benefits the world as a whole, even if the requirement is to forsake your own heart, or the lives of your loved ones, in other words, our mission is one of unwavering faith and enormous self-sacrifice. Henceforth, your compliance to my request would be the ultimate declaration of loyalty, and I would reward such loyalty with the ultimate declaration of trust...by sharing all my secrets with you." explained Obito with complete seriousness, something he had not quite displayed before as Minato's student.

"So...what will do, Minato-sensei? Is your wife more important to you than the world's peace?" asked Obito, adopting a relaxed posture with his right hand on his waist and his head cocked to the side curiously.

_'I thought so! He needs the power of the kyubi to complete his objectives, without it, his plans either can't be fulfilled at all, or have a significantly lower chance of success.' _analyzed Minato.

"I see, in that case the answer is...no!" replied Minato with finality.

"Hmmm...just as I thought, I'm going to have to kill you after all, too bad, we would have made a potent team, Minato-sensei." lamented Obito, shaking his head in mock sadness.

"I do not know what you plan to do, or how exactly you plan to create peace in the ninja world, but if you need to kill Kushina, destroy Konoha, and obtain the Kyubi's power, then, as a loving husband and father, and as the Yondaime Hokage, I can't possibly, in my right mind, support you and your methods, it is thereby my responsibility to stop you." replied Minato, adopting a battle stance with a hiraishin kunai held with his left hand in a reverse grip.

"I wasn't asking you to help me as any of those things, I was asking you to help me...as my sensei!" retorted Obito, emphasizing the word 'sensei' with dramatic effect.

"Heh...nice try, but, you're not the same Obito, and you also have another mentor, one that you clearly hold in higher regard than me, isn't that right, Obito...?" asked Minato retorically, Obito's eyes widening in surprise at his sensei's great analytical skills.

"Hn, a very interesting analysis, what gave it away?" asked Obito with genuine curiosity.

"Just like a master engineer is able to differentiate between his work and someone elses, or when someone else has tinkered with his work, so can a teacher with regards to the work he has done with his student." explained Minato phylosophically.

"I see..." was all Obito said, learning, once again, something new from his former sensei.

"So...what was it like?" asked Minato cryptically.

"What are you talking about?" asked Obito.

"Learning under the great Uchiha Madara, what was it like?" asked a dead serious Minato, searching and analyzing Obito's facial expressions with intense scrutiny.

"H-how did y-you know...?" stuttered Obito, eyes wide in horror, utterly confused and unable to understand how his former sensei could have possibly gotten his hands on that kind of information. The only way he could have known would have been if Zetsu had betrayed him and told the Yondaime Hokage.

_'But that is impossible, Zetsu would never betray Madara-sensei, but then how...was it Uzumaki Naruto who told him, but how would he...he does seem to know a lot more than he should though. Kuso! This is not good!' _thought Obito wearily.

"I didn't know for sure up until now, thanks for confirming my suspisions though." replied Minato with a victorious smirk.

"B-bastard! You tricked me...!"

"Yes, yes I did, I am a shinobi after all, it's part of my job description, did you forget everything I taught you, Obito?" replied Minato, admonishing his former student for forgetting one of the most basic shinobi teachings.

"I underestimated you, I should have known better. However, I am very curious, what do you know about that man?" asked Obito.

"That man...?"

"Uchiha Madara, what exactly do you know about him?" asked Obito.

"You're trying to find out whether I really figured out your secret on my own, or if someone else informed me about it...meaning, you have other allies besides Madara and you're now starting to doubt their loyalty to you and your cause. Am I right, Obito?" responded Minato.

"..." Obito right there and then decided to end all conversation with his former teacher, finally realizing just how dangerous even a simple conversation was against an opponent of this calibre.

_'He's planting seeds of thought in my mind with words alone so that I can doubt myself and my own allies. Not only that, he is able to use every question and response to make quick and concise anologies about me and the secrets that I hold dear. He clearly has a lot more experience then I do, from here on out, our ninjutsu alone must do the talking.' _thought Obito, unwillingly but reasonably admitting defeat in the art of psychological warefare.

"No comment...?"

"There is no need for me to exchange words with you anymore, you're already dead, you just don't know it yet." said Obito as he adopted his own battle stance.

"I see, in that case..." trailed off Minato, throwing a lightning infused Kunai at the unmasked Obito with blinding speed. The attack was of course useless, the kunai fazing through Obito's body before crashing and sinking into the ground ten metres away from his position.

_'A Hiraishin kunai infused with lightning oscillations in order to increase speed and penetration. I see, he's trying to find out if there is a speed limitation to the activation of my intangibility before he goes into battle. A smart move, even as useless as it may be.' _thought Obito.

"You won't defeat me if that is all you've got! People like you, who are unwilling to make any sacrifices for a greater good should just give up!" exclaimed Obito, running at top speed towards Minato, eyes blazing with purpose and determination. Minato didn't hesitate either, also running at full speed towards his adversary. Close combat was his specialty after all, usually, his biggest concern would be when the enemy tried to distance himself as much as possible, however, it made things a whole lot easier if the enemy came to him of his own accord.

Student and teacher clashed a split second later, or at least would have clashed if Obito didn't activate his intangibility technique. As a result, Minato's attempt to stab Obito through the chest was a complete failure, the Yondaime Hokage fazing through the rogue Uchiha's body. Obito was also quick to react by pulling the chains attached to his wrist across his body, hoping to trap Minato and supress his chakra with the chains. Minato wouldn't have been able to use his teleportation technique or any other technique for that matter if he had been caught by the chakra absorbing chains, but forutunately for him, he was fast enough and wise enough to teleport away from the danger before it became too late.

Obito was a little surprised when he didn't feel Minato's weight against the chains, but was relatively quick to get over it, realizing that it wasn't entirely out of the physical realms of possibility, given who he was fighting against and given the fact that Naruto had escaped the same manuever only a few minutes ago.

_'Just as I thought, he made himself intangible to defend against my attack, but he had to solidify himself in order to launch a counter attack. Also, that manuever was meant to use my speed for his own benefit, the faster the enemy is, the harder it will be for said person to react to the chains.' _thought Minato from a crouching position that he had landed in after teleporting, turning around and standing tall to face his opponent again.

_'I thought that kunai he threw earlier was to test how fast I can activate my jutsu, but I was wrong. He only made it seem like that, but what he was really doing was setting up another marker to teleport to.' _thought Obito, noting that Minato was now actually standing over the trench that the kunai dug into the earth.

"Tell me Obito, why did Madara send you to get the Kyubi, why didn't he come here himself?" asked Minato.

"I'm his apprentice, unlike you, he has never doubted my ability as a shinobi, he believes in me." replied Obito simply.

"Really? I have a different theory, I think that Madara is not here because he is unable to be here. Just thinking about it, Uchiha Madara would have to be close to ninety years of age by now, he couldn't possibly be anywhere near fit enough to go into battle with anyone. Therefore, there are only two possible scenarios, one, you plan to use the Kyubi's raw physical energy and lifeforce to re-energize him, or, he is already dead and you plan to ressurect him in your so called perfect world, the same way that you plan to revive Rin." theorized Minato, once again, paying close attention to Obito's emotional reaction, something that, unfortunately for Obito, was not as easy to hide wihout his mask.

"Once again, a very interesting and concise anology, but very irrelevant for a dead man." replied Obito with feigned nonchalance, in actuality, his nerves were close to breaking point. Minato's theories may not have bin pin-point accurate, but they might as well have been, given how much he was able to gleen from such a limited amount of information.

"I suppose it doesn't matter, Inoichi-san will just have to extract everything out of your mind once I have captured you." said Minato matter of factly, once again, adopting a battle ready stance.

_'His space-time ninjutsu surpasses both mine and Nidaime-sama, and he has quite a dangerous ideology too. I can't afford to lose to him here, thousands, and maybe millions of lives may depend on the outcome of this battle. _thought Minato.

"I'm the one that's going to extract Kushina's whereabouts from your mind, and then I'll turn you into a corpse!" exclaimed Obito, preparing to propel himself for one last attack. That idea was however thrown out the window almost as soon as Obito spoke it, a sense of fear creeping up the rogue Uchiha's spine as he stared at an the unbelievable site in the air right between the two combatants, the sky splitting up in a manner reminiscent of a slit throat to reveal a dark void that opened up enough for a human being to pass through.

_'What is that, is that another of his jikugan ninjutsu?' _thought Minato wearily, making sure that his guard was up on full alert. Obito on the other hand used the sharingan's ability to try and assess the nature and source of the jutsu, and needless to say, the results were more than shocking.

_'The chakra in that jutsu seems familiar somehow...no way, it can't be!' _thought Obito fearfully, his mind struggling to come to terms with optical information provided by his own sharingan, but he had no choice but to believe, because no sooner had his mind rebuked the very possibilty, did the blonde thirteen year old appear from the void, walking out to the very edge of the portal so that he could look out at the other two space-time ninjutsu practitioners, and so that they could see him too of course.

"I appreciate you allowing me to tour your dimension, Obito, but there are far more important things that I'd rather be doing then touring an empty storage room." said Naruto nonchalantly, as if he wasn't supposed to be locked in another dimension with no way to ever return again until he died of starvation and/or dehydration.

"Naruto...you're back!" exclaimed Minato happily.

"You seem to have a neck for stating the blatantly obvious." replied Naruto snidely.

Not waiting for a response, the blonde Uzumaki quickly jumped out of the dark abyss as the portal snapped shut behind him and then disappearing altogether. Following the de-activation of the **slashed** **throat** **migration** **technique**, the blonde used the **splitting void migration **to teleport himself to a safe distance from both of his presumed adversaries, standing away to Minato's right hand side and Obitos left hand side.

"Uzumaki Naruto, I am one hundred percent sure that I captured you, how is it possible that you are here?" demanded Obito.

"Hmmm...let us see, I'm here because...hmmm, I don't seem to remember." said Naruto mockingly, causing Obito and even Minato to twitch irritably, both waiting in anticipation for an explanation only to be brought back to reality harshly. A shinobi never reveals his secrets, that was one of the most basic and well known shinobi rules. Naruto almost wanted to laugh at the two elder shinobi's reactions to his response, but this was hardly the time to be joking around, so he was able to successfully hold it in.

Escaping from Tobi's dimension was not as much of a walk in the park as he made it seem, in fact, for a little while, he'd been genuinely worried that he may have lost to Obito again, and that this time, there would be no lucky dimension/time hopping escapades, after all, that kind of luck could only happen zero times in a person's lifetime, for it to happen twice was just unfathomable. Initially, he'd tried to use the splitting void migration to get back to the battlefield, but then the technique didn't seem to work inside Tobi's dimension. He just kept appearing in the same spot over and over again everytime he tried to jump back to earth. Of course, being the genius that he is, and knowing the ins and outs of his own technique, it wasn't long before he'd discovered exactly what the problem was.

It was actually simple, the splitting void migration required the calculation of the co-ordinates of the destination in order to be effective, but earth geographics did not apply to a different and enclosed dimension. The jutsu required that you know where you are but more importantly, where you were going, and therefore wouldn't work in a completely enclosed dimension. However, the slashed throat migration was a little different, whereas splitting void opened a tunnel straight to another location, slashed throat opened a tunnel to it's own dimension. Therefore, Naruto didn't have to know how to calculate earth co-ordinates from the kamui dimension, with the slashed throat migration, he could just open a tunnel straight to his own dimension. And then from there, he could go back to the earth, since he had already figured out how to do that from the slashed throat dimension. Of course, this was done only after giving himself a nice little tour inside the kamui dimension, he'd been hoping to find something, anything important that Obito might have stored in there, but he was unable to find anything.

"Hn, whatever, how you returned doesn't really matter, I won't make the same mistake twice, next time, I'll kill you the instant I lay my hands on you." replied Obito.

"I don't know how you survived my first attack, but I know it was your mask that saved you the second time, this time, I'll be sure to finish you off." replied Naruto, adopting a battle stance with the Kabutowari mallet held out in front of him and his legs bent a little at the knees for propulsion.

"Wait Naruto!" shouted Minato hastily.

"I'l deal with you later Minato-san, go back to your wife!" ordered Naruto irritably.

"We can go and see her together once I have taken care of Obito, he is my former student, it is my responsibility to take care of him, at least allow me to attone for my mistake, you'll understand one day when you have your own students." retorted Minato.

"Besides, I promised Kushina that I would bring you back to her unharmed, I don't want to break any promises that I make to her." said Minato with a nostalgic smile.

_'Hmmm...tou-san was able to severely wound Obito in my timeline and even managed to place a contract seal on him to release his control of Kurama, but, there is no need to use a contract seal this time, so maybe instead of a contract seal, he could deliver a killing blow. Even if he can't or doesn't deliver a killing blow, I could finish him off when he tries to teleport away, after all, he does need to materialize himself in order to suck himself in, I'll just aim for that moment.' _thought Naruto.

"Tche! Whatever, do as you please, just make sure you win." replied Naruto apathetically.

"I'l definitely win, I can't afford to lose." replied Minato.

"That's fine by me, I was planning to get rid of you first anyway." said Obito emotionlessly.

_'Naruto's jikugan ninjutsu surpasses Minato-sensei's jutsu in many ways, but even so, a weapon is only as strong as it's user. Therfore, Minato-sensei is still the more dangerous of the two, this situation suits me just fine, I wanted to take-on Minato-sensei first anyway, and then I'll take care of the brat later. Still...I can't afford to take my eye off Naruto, but at the same time I can't hope to defeat Minato-sensei without allocating my full concentration on him...seems like I'm going to have to sacrifice an eye.' _thought Obito, once again, running head-on at his sensei with very impressive speed.

_'He de-materializes himself in order to defend against physical attacks, but he has to materialize in order to launch a counter attack, I'll have to aim for that intance when he counter attacks, meaning, the one who attacks faster will win the battle.' _ thought Minato, also running full speed at his former student with intent and purpose, however unlike the previous clash, Minato didn't launch his initial attack at close range, choosing rather to throw a kunai at his adversary before they reached each other. Obito was a little surprised by the manuever, but simply fazed through it just as he had done with every other attack thrown at him for a few years now.

Minato on the other hand formed an instant rasengan as soon as he launched the kunai, seemingly preparing to ram spiraling sphere against his former student's face. Obito extended his right arm at Minato, also, seemingly trying to finish the battle as quickly as possible, trying to grab onto the blonde Hokage so that he can instantly trap him in his dimension. Threw all of this, not even a second went by, the kunai that Minato had thrown at Obito only now completely fazing out the back of Obito's head, at the same time, Obito's hand was a split second away from grabbing onto Minato, who instantly teleported to the moving kunai, caught it with his left hand, and then rammed the rasengan formed on his right hand through Obito's back.

"Aaaargh!...just kidding!" said Obito with sadistic amusement. Having seen through Minato's strategy from the moment he threw that kunai, Obito never intended to materialize himself or to kamui his former sensei, but only pretended that he did, hence why a slightly surprised Minato found himself once again unable to inflict any damage on his former student, fazing through his body once again. Unfortunately for Minato, his trajectory made it so that he ended up crouching right in front of Obito, who quickly materialized himself, grabbed hold of Minato's right shoulder, and activated kamui, all in one movement.

_'I've won the battle of speed!' _thought Obito with elation and pride, activating kamui in an attempt to instantly teleport his sensei away. Unfortunately, Obito failed to plan for a three staged attack plan, and therefore did notice the hiraishin kunai that seemingly grew out of the ground right behind him. Minato, now hundred percent sure that Obito was tangible, one because of the hand on his shoulder, and two, because he had already figured out that Obito would need to be tangible in order to activate that justu, waited until the very last second before teleporting himself to Obito's blind spot in the space around the kunai that was protruding out of the earth and then once again, attempting and this time succeeding in his attempt to ram a rasengan into the Uchiha prodigy's back, creating a large explosion that formed a large creator on the ground, sending fissures all around the battle area. The power behind the attack was so great that the whole landscape was destroyed and re-shaped into large bolders, crevices, and trenches. Minato's attack plan did not end there, the Yondaime Hokage using his super fast reflexes and sealing prowess to switch from the rasengan to placing a formula tag on Obito's back without his notice before jumping away to a safe distance.

_'W-wow! So this is what it's like to watch otou-san in action, I knew he was good all along, but this...this is just something else.' _thought a more than impressed Naruto.

Obito jumped out of the creator only a few seconds later, also landing at a relatively safe distance from both of his opponents, holding onto his left arm in agony, his breathing also a little rapid and raggard.

_'Kuso! How did he...that kunai, when did he...' _thought Obito, looking at the kunai that was still protruding out of the ground near the spot he'd been standing at before getting on the receiving end of his former sensei's rasengan. Obito's eyes widened even further when the kunai sank into the ground, only to rise again near the Yondaime Hokage's feet, Minato crouching down to pick it up before placing it back into his weapons pouch.

_'He used earth ninjutsu to filter the kunai under the ground, and then had it resurface on my blind spot at the right moment in order to catch me off guard. He also waited until I activated kamui before launching his attack, that means that he knows the weakness of my jutsu. Still, this doesn't make sense, when did he get the chance to...' _trailled off Obito in shock.

"This is the same kunai that I threw at you at the beginning, the one that I initially infused with lighting chakra, and the same one I used to teleport away from your chains when we first clashed. With earth style ninjutsu, I was able to make the kunai travel below the surface and waited for the right time to have it re-surface at a location of my choosing, that is how I defeated your strategy." explained Minato.

"I'm curious though, why didn't you materialize yourself when I formed the rasengan after throwing another kunai at you, how did you know I was able to teleport to a moving kunai?" asked Minato.

"I saw it earlier when you tried to use it against Naruto, I didn't know that there was another level to your jutsu up until that point in time, I would thank him for helping to reveal that secret, but as you can see, that knowledge didn't really help much, you still got me anyway." replied Obito apathetically.

"I see...so, are you ready to turn yourself in? You've already lost an arm and you took a direct hit from my rasengan, you're in no condition to fight anymore." asked Minato.

"Hehe, not in any condition to fight anymore? You don't know what you're..." Minato, realising that Obito would not surrender unless he literally had no choice, did not bother waiting for him to finish speaking what he wanted to say and used the seal that he had placed on his student's back to teleport himself to his position instantly, placing his palm on Obito's chest before activating a seal that was rapidly spreading on across his chest.

_'Hiraishin no jutsu! When did he...I see, he must have placed a marker on me right after he hit me with the rasengan!' _thought Obito in shock, watching in horror as a seal array started spreading across his torso.

_'A __**chakra supression seal**__! He plans to lock away my chakra so that I can't teleport away or become intangibe any longer!' _thought Obito in realisation.

"With this, you won't be able to use any ninjutsu or genjutsu, neither will you be able to enhance your taijutsu and speed with chakra, you're now officially a Konoha prisoner." said Minato with finality and a suprising lack of emotion in his tone.

_**Clap clap clap clap**_

"Well done, Namikaze Minato, I didn't think it was possible to stop someone like him without killing him, but you have actually done it, without even sustaining an injury, very impressive indeed." praised Naruto genuinely. Minato turned his head around to look at his miniature clone so that he could see if he really meant what he was saying or if it was just another one of his sarcastic remarks.

"Hehehehe, well, it wasn't as easy as it looked you know, this guy was a super tough cooky, ehehehe!" replied Minato with a goofy smile, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

"So, what are you going to do with him now?" asked Naruto.

"What is he going to do with who?" asked Obito from a distance behind Naruto, causing both Minato's and Naruto's eyes to widen in complete shock, moreso Minato's, because Obito was in his direct line of site, not only that but he looked completely healed and rejuvinated. Naruto also quickly turned around to confirm if what he was hearing was actually real, and to his surprise, it really was what it sounded like.

_'But how, I sealed away his chakra...wait a minute!' _thought Minato, turning his head around again only to see a fading Obito just before he dissapeared into thin air.

_'A genjutsu...? No, that's impossible, genjutsu doesn't work against me!' _thought Minato wearily, turning around, this time his whole body to look at the seemingly healed and replenished Obito.

"What's going on Obito, I was sure that I had captured the real you, and genjutsu doesn't work against me, so what is it, how did you do that?" demanded Minato.

_'True, it would be incredibly dangerous to use a genjutsu against a master of the Uzumaki-clan's sealing and barrier techniques, they always had dangerous mind barrier traps to protect against anyone trying to manipulate or even to simply influence their nervous system, a system employed in order to protect the Uzumai clan's secrets.' _thought Obito.

"Oh it's nothing, just a little something that I prepared at the beginning, you're not the only one that had an intermediate battle plan you know." replied Obito as his left eye started glowing slightly before closing up involuntarily.

_'I had this set up just in case Uzumaki Naruto decided to interfere with the battle, I didn't expect Minato-sensei to trigger this technique on his own. Despite constantly reminding myself not to, I ended up underestimating him anyway, no, rather, I was never truly able to completely comprehend the extent of his power until now, I guess the flee on site order on his bingo book entry was justified after all.' _thought Obito.

"Something you prepared from the beginning, what do you mean exactly?"asked Minato with a confused expression, for the first time truly unable to fully grasp a concept in his entire existence.

_'His left eye has just sealed itself shut, whatever he did, it must have something to do with that eye.' _thought Minato.

"I think I understand now, you're a vigilantly cautious individual aren't you." said Naruto.

"What do you mean Naruto, do you know something about his jutsu?" asked Minato.

"Yes, I know what he did." replied Naruto simply, causing Obito's remaining eye to widen in surprise.

_'No, that's impossible, there's no way he would know about Izanagi!' _thought Obito hysterically.

"You do?" exclaimed Minato with anticipation.

"Yes, don't make me repeat myself." replied Naruto irritably.

"Alright, please explain it to me then." replied Minato with a serious expression.

"The technique is an Uchiha clan kinjutsu known simply as...**izanagi**." said Naruto, shattering Obito's doubts about him really knowing about his jutsu and peaking Minato's interest to no end.

_'I-impossible! He knows!' _thought Obito in horror.

"Izanagi?" asked Minato, probing for a more detailed explanation.

"Yes, at the expense of one eye, an Uchiha can cast a genjutsu over himself that can change destiny, in other words, a genjutsu that can morph and twist reality itself. Basically, if you had killed Obito, the jutsu would have discarded the reality of Obito's death and replaced it with the a new reality, a reality where he didn't really die. The jutsu has only a few weaknesses, it has to be activated before the killing blow, an eye is completely and forever sealed away when the jutsu has fulfilled it's purpose, and the jutsu has a time limit that varies from person to person, those are sacrifices and weaknesses for the ability to change reality." explained Naruto.

Both Obito and Minato were mighty surprised and disbelieving, but for completely different reasons. Obito, because he simply couldn't comprehend how an outsider could have gotten his hands on such information, by outsider meaning a non-Uchiha. Minato, because because, well, because such a jutsu seemed too unreal to be true.

_'But...his eye did seem to seal itself away, and his injuries do seem to have been completely regenerated. Not only that, but I can't feel the marker that I placed on his back, which means, the marker does not exist anymore, maybe he really did change reality after all.' _thought Minato, remembering that, while it indeed was the first time that he'd witnessed it, that it however was not the first time that he has heard claims of a genjutsu that could alter reality, the Kurama clan did claim to have had geniuses who could pull something like that off in the past.

"A genjutsu that can change destiny huh? You really have grown a lot since you died, Obito, if you hadn't gone so far astray, I would have been very proud to have once been your teacher." said Minato.

"Save me the sentimentals, your words mean nothing to me anymore." replied Obito.

"I see, well, I guess we should finish our battle than, let us see if you really have surpassed me." challenged Minato, adopting, for the third time now, a battle stance and expression.

"Hn, maybe some other time, I have other things to attend to and a new world to plan for. Do not think you have outwitted me just because you unmasked me, or stopped me from destroying Konoha with the Kyubi, I have many other options, many back-up plans and unlimited resources. My plans will come to fruitition, you and this world have no future...the future is my perfect world!" declared Obito.

"Nice little speech you have there, but you're not fooling anyone. The only way for you to escape is to teleport yourself away, but you need to materialize yourself to open that teleportation vortex, we'll simply aim for that window." said Minato confidently.

"Once again, a very good analysis, however, the marker you placed on me has been warped out of this reality, you have no way of catching me." rebuked Obito confidently.

"Maybe I have no way of catching you without a marker, but Naruto doesn't need a marker." retorted Minato, smirking arrogantly at his S-rank criminal student.

"You've underestimated me, did you really think that I wouldn't make provision for Naruto's abilities?" asked Obito with a condensing undertone as his body fazed through the earth's surface.

"No response...? Hn, no matter, we'll meet again." said Obito just before his head disapeared into the ground and his presence altogether. Following Obito's disapearance, Minato placed his right index and middle finger on the ground in order to feel for his presence, but could not detect anything.

"He's gone..." trailed off Minato.

"Yes he is, because someone felt the need to brag about his plan of action to the enemy." replied Naruto condensingly.

"He's not stupid, he wouldn't have fallen for that move twice. I already exploited his use of that jutsu during our battle and he knows that you were watching, he never planned to teleport himself with that jutsu." explained Minato to the slight confusion of one Uzumaki Naruto.

"I don't get it, if you already knew that, than why the victorious speech and the confident declaration of victory?" asked Naruto with a raised eyebrow.

"He didn't materialize himself after he used izanagi, in other words, he was intangible the whole time we were talking after using that jutsu. I wanted to find out if there was a time-limit to that jutsu. Near the end of our conversation, he seemed to be in quite a rush to leave and was very quick to dismiss us and go away. I counted exactly four minutes and fifty two seconds before he disapeared, probably, he can only remain intangible for five minutes at a time. We can use that information to defeat him when we clash again in the future." explained Minato.

_'Wow, otou-san never wastes any moves at all, and he only needs to see a jutsu once to completely dissect it and put it back together. I knew he was great, but seeing him in action personally is so much better than hearing stories about him.' _thought Naruto.

"I see, I guess that's a reasonable excuse." replied Naruto simply.

_'My work is done here, I should probably leave now, I have a lot of work to do still in Kiri.' _thought Naruto, ejecting a glowing chain that flew out rapidly and attached itself to his axe.

When the chain connected to the hilt, Naruto chanelled his chakra through the axe, an axe that was attached to the chain system that was maintaining the barrier that he'd set up at the beginning, causing the barrier to collapse and the chains to sink back into a sealing array on the hilt of the weapon. When this was achieved, Naruto pulled the chain back into his palm until the axe was close enough to grasp with his hand before the axe disapeared into a seal on his wrist with a small poof of smoke.

"Konoha is far enough that no one there should have been able to see the barrier, and the barrier also serves as a chakra, sent, and sound cloak, basically, no one would have sensed that a battle was taking place here. So, what I want to ask you is, what are you going to say when you return to Konoha, are you going to tell them anything about what happened here today?"asked Naruto curiously.

"Biwako-sama and Taji both died here today, I'll need to have an explanation for that. At the very least, I'll have to tell Hiruzen about today's events." replied Minato.

"Fair enough, but, we do not know how Hiruzen will react to the news, what if he decides to inform the elders, or even the whole Konoha shinobi counsel about it, what then?" asked Naruto.

"You seem to know a little too much about Konoha's hierarchial structure, not to mention, your timely intervention of Obito's assualt and your knowledge about supposedly secret Uchiha clan kinjutsu, just who are you exactly?" asked Minato suspiciously.

"I make it my business to know everything that happens in the shinobi world, especially where Kushina-sama is involved. And since she is now a Konoha shinobi, what happens in Konoha has also become my business, I've been watching over her from the shadows for a quite a long time now." replied Naruto vaguely.

"So, you're a spy master, is that what you're trying to say?"

"Hmmm...I guess so, but I also like to think of myself as a guardian of sorts, an Uzumaki clan guardian, and a guardian of the shinobi world." explained Naruto.

"I see..."

"Good, now answer my question, what if Sarutobi reveals this information, what do you think will happen then?" asked Naruto.

"I will request that he keep the information to himself, he has more experience than even I do, he understands the shinobi principle of secrecy very well." retorted Minato.

"Sure he does, except when it comes to his teammates, you really think Danzo and the other elders won't hear of this? Are you willing to take that risk?" asked Naruto retorically.

"You're acting like these people are the enemy, I happen to know that they are a few of the most patriotic Konoha loyalists in the village, so what if they hear about this? Is there something that I should know?" demanded Minato.

"I'm only looking after Kushina-sama's interests, and by extention, your interests. Look at the situation with a little more wisdom, your own student killed the Sandaime Hokage's wife and tried to steal the Kyubi and destroy the village with it, how do you think the others will look at you when they hear about this?" asked Naruto to the shock and and subsequent widening of the eyes of his unknowing father.

"Exactly, you will be looked at with scrutiny, suspission, and destrust. Every decision you take will be questioned, investigated, and sometimes even overuled. You might even be forced to step down as Hokage eventually, and they might not trust you with Kushina-sama's protection anymore, you could be seperated from her..." said Naruto with a grave undertone, watching the changing expression on his father's face with curiosity and even a little amusement.

"Don't tell anyone about Obito. This is what happened, a masked guy with a sharingan infiltrated your barrier, killed Biwako and Taji, and tried to kill Natsumi. You saved Natsumi and took her to safety and then used the marker on her seal to return to her just as the masked guy began his attempt to extract the Kyubi. You saved Kushina, teleported her away, and then continued your battle with the masked guy. You defeated him but were unable to kill him before he escaped with his space-time ninjutsu. That is a summarised version of course, but I'm sure you can produce a more detailed format." said Naruto.

"I couldn't help but notice how you left yourself out of that explanation." retorted Minato dryly.

"I saved your wife and consequently, saved many Konoha citizen lives for you, you owe me, Namikaze Minato." replied Naruto.

"Leave me out when you make your report, and I'll consider us even." Naruto said.

"Don't act like you did this for me, you did this for yourself, I know you love Kushina, I see it in your eyes every time you talk about her."

"Nevertheless, that does not change the fact that I saved her and by extension, thousands of Konoha citizens, and it does not change the fact that you owe me for that." retorted Naruto.

"Sigh...fine, I won't mention you to anyone, and I'll make sure that Kushina understands, but, we're even now, right?"asked Minato.

"No, not yet, there's one more thing I want you to do for me."

"What is it?" asked Minato with narrowed eyes.

"I want you to bring Kushina-sama to me, I want to see her one last time before I go, oh, and bring the baby too." replied Naruto.

**End Chapter**

**Aright not much happened in this chapter, but the plot will move along swiftly from here on out, that's a promise.**

**The title of the next chapter is...**Hatake Kakashi vs Zetsu.

**This chapter was was longer than the previous one, and the next one will be even longer, nearly twice as long I think, so expect a lot of things to happen.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or any other series that I might use for inspiration.

**Chapter 4**

_**Looking Into The Future, The Kiri Empire**_

"Naruto!" exclaimed Kushina happily, taking a few steps towards the blonde Uzumaki with baby Natsumi held tightly in her arms, only to stop her advances abrubtly, realising that she wasn't getting any closer to her target.

"Don't come any closer, stay where you are." said Naruto seriously, matching Kushina step by step in her strides, except, rather than moving towards her, he was actually back tracking away from her, something that had Kushina figuratively scratching her head with confusion, considering he was the one that demanded to see her, according to Minato.

"N-Naruto, what's wrong, I thought you wanted to see me...I...I thought you wanted to see Natsumi-chan?" stuttered Kushina with a hurt expression, a look that almost crushed Naruto's resolve to stay far away from her, but he wouldn't allow his feelings to cloud his judgement, he'd done that many times in the past/future and the results were more often then not, unpleasant.

"Minato has intergrated his jutsu formula into your seal, if you come any closer, I will be within his attack range. Think about it, why would he willingly allow you and his baby daughter to come anywhere near a dangerous stranger like me?" asked Naruto retorically, causing both Kushina and Minato's eyes to widen in in surprise.

_'He saw through my plan...? Kuso, he must have discovered my jutsu formula when he was fixing Kushina's seal, he's very good.' _thought Minato.

"B-but don't you want to see the new heiress to our clan?"asked Kushina, seemingly completely ignoring Naruto's predicament.

_'Did she just say what I think she said?' _thought Naruto in shock.

To say Naruto was surprised was an understatement, it was like saying Minato was a fast, or that Orochimaru was evil, a massive understatement. He didn't know what he expected really, but he certainly didn't expect what he just heard from Kushina, it was so mind boggling that he almost asked her to repeat herself, just to make sure that he'd heard her properly. He couldn't see the baby's face from where he was, the baby was wrapped up from toe to head with a white blanket, but if the baby really was a girl like Kushina suggested she was, than that opened up a whole new world with infinite possibilities for Naruto.

_'So she gave birth to a girl in this timeline, thank goodness! What a great stroke of luck, it would have been very hard to explain my existence if another me had been born.' _thought Naruto with a little relief.

_'Still, I have to see the baby, it won't change much if it is just a female version of me.' _thought Naruto wearily, remembering the perverted ninjutsu that he used to use to transform into a girl when he was still at the academy, also wondering what on earth could have possessed him to invent a ridiculous jutsu like that, besides defeating perverts that is.

"As a matter of fact, I do want to see the baby, could you please allow me a small glimpse of her, Kushina-sama?" asked Naruto as politely and respectful as possible.

"But don't you want to hold her? I mean, you're family right, you'll be like an uncle, or you can even be like an older brother figure to her, she'll need a role model from her own family besides her parents."pleaded Kushina, although slightly losing her patience with the blonde Uzumaki's hesitance, why the hell didn't he want to hold her baby, she was the most beautiful and cute baby in the world, who wouldn't want to coddle her.

"I already told you, I can't afford to get close to you, I'll be in your husband's attack range." replied Naruto simply.

"Aaaargh! That nonsense again? Fine!" exclaimed Kushina angrily.

No sooner had she vented her anger, did chakra chains burst out of the ground that Minato was standing on. The attack was so unexpected and so out of character that Minato was caught completely off guard, even not counting the fact that he was unprepared, Kushina's chains were incredibly fast, rapidly incasing him in less than a second and supressing his chakra completely.

_'She released the chains directly into the ground from the soles of her feet to avoid notice of her attack until the very last possible instance, she's very good.' _thought Naruto.

"There, now won't you come over here and take a look at your beautiful baby cousin?" asked Kushina with a smile that was a little too pleasant for Naruto's liking, he'd be lying through his teeth if he said he wasn't intimidated by her.

"Um..."

"Kushina-chan, I know you think you can trust him because he saved you, but you can't trust someone you barely know just because of that, we still don't know his motives for saving you!" exclaimed Minato.

"I know why he saved me." replied Kushina simply.

"Huh...you do?" asked Minato, looking like a dear caught in headlights.

"Off course I do, Naruto-kun saved me because he is family, because he's a true Uzumaki." said Kushina with a glittering smile, as if it should have been the most obvious thing in the world.

"K-kushina...look, I know what it is like to grow up as an orphan, and I know what it was like for you growing up, I was there with you through half of it, but you can't let your past cloud your judgement in this s..."

"Listen...Minato-koi! I know that I cannot logically explain my decision to trust him, but you have to trust my feelings on this one, I can't explain it, but I just felt something...feel something about him, it's like I know deep down in my heart that he would never harm me, like...I can feel him, I can feel our familial connection. I believe him when he says he is an Uzumaki, I know he is, and I know he would never hurt me. I've always trusted you and believed in everything that you have done, I even trusted you with my family secrets, please have faith in me in return." pleaded Kushina.

_'She can feel a family connection to me? Is this what they call a mother's instinct, does she subconsciously recognise me as her son?' _thought a very nervous Naruto.

_'No! That's just plain ridiculous, there's no such thing, this is just hero worship, I saved her life and now she feels safe and secure around me, that's all there is to it.' _thought Naruto in denial.

"Kushina...I...you're right, I should have a little more faith in you, you're my wife and teacher after all." replied Minato with resignation.

"Thank you Minato-koi, that means a lot to me." replied Kushina with a content smile.

"Soooo...does that mean you'll let me go now...?"

"Don't push it dattebane!"

"O-okay." sputtered Minato fearfully, hoping beyond hope that his wife wouldn't lose her temper, especially considering how defenseless he was at that moment in time, he didn't want to be anywhere near the receiving end of the red blooded habanero's fiery temper.

"Good. Now, Naruto, it's time for you to meet my daughter, come over and meet Natsumi-chan." said, or rather, ordered Kushina.

_'I only wanted to confirm the identity of the baby so that I can know how to proceed with my plans for the future, but it looks like I'm going to have to do a little more than just looking' _thought Naruto.

"Um...I'm coming." said Naruto hesitantly, taking a few slow and tentative steps towards Kushina and the baby.

"J-just hurry up dattebane, she's going to catch a cold out here!" shouted Kushina impatiently.

_'Shit, I better hurry up before she decides to chain me up as well!' _thought the Uzumaki swordsmen.

"Okay...ahem...here I am, can I see the baby now?" asked Naruto, holding his arms out in a gesture that clearly indicated that Kushina should pass the baby unto him.

"Off course you can. Naruto-kun, meet your little cousin, Natsumi-chan." said Kushina as she handed the baby over to the 13 year old blonde. Naruto took the baby into his embrace and to his surprise, made direct eye contact with little Natsumi-chan's violet eyes, surprised because she was so quiet that he'd actually thought that she was asleep, not knowing that she was awake the whole time.

"She takes after me, she's got both my eyes and my hair, even her face looks like mine, but I bet her personality will be the same as Minato." said Kushina, looking at the baby with a mother's adoration.

"She's just as beautiful as you, she even has your beautiful red hair." said Naruto, staring at the baby with surprising affection, not to Kushina or even Minato, but surprise to himself. He couldn't understand why, but he felt very affectionate and protective of little Natsumi even though he'd only known her for a few seconds.

"Y-you think my hair is beautiful dattebane?" sputtered Kushina, spotting a cute blush on either of her cheeks.

_'I forgot how sensitive she is about her hair colour.' _thought Naruto.

"Of course I do, your hair is the most beautiful hair that I have ever seen. I only wish I had also inherited our clan's beautiful hair as well, but I guess we can't all get everything that we want, at least I inherited our bloodline." replied Naruto honestly, of course, he was aware that his fetish for red haired women might stem from his Uzumaki lineage, but that didn't make his opinion any less true, her hair was up there with the best that he had seen, in fact, it was at the very top.

"I...um...thanks, I mean...yeah, thank you dattebane" sputtered Kushina, not knowing how else to react, no one but her husband had ever complimented her about her hair before, not even her best friend Mikoto.

"I can't believe you tied me up just so you can flirt with another man in front of me..."

"S-shut up! I'm not flirting dattebane! W-we're blood relatives, and he's only what, like fourteen!"

"Thirteen." corrected Naruto.

"Yeah, like thirteen, are you stupid!" exclaimed an embarrassed and pissed off Kushina.

"Yeah, I guess age doesn't matter to you...gwaaaah!" cried Minato in agony, feeling like his whole body was about to be crushed into pieces by Kushina's chakra chains.

"L-like, apologise...now!"

"I...I'm sorry, it was just a joke, really, I promise!" pleaded Minato pathetically.

_'I guess she wears the pants in this relationship, I must say, I'm a little surprised, she seemed so kind and gentle when I met her in my mindscape, but then again, she did punch me over the head initially when she was pissed off at me thinking she was the Kyubi,' _thought Naruto.

"Tche...you don't sound very remourseful..." said Kushina suspiciously.

"I am, I really am, can't you see that I am?" asked Minato, face scrunched up in pain from the crushing grip of Kushina's chains.

"No, you just look like you swallowed feacies that's all dattebane." disputed Kushina, not entirely convinced of the sincerity behind her husband's apology.

"I don't even want to know how you would know the expression on someone who just ate feacies."

"Why you...!"

"As amusing as it is watching your couple's banter, I have other business to attend to, I will take my leave now." said Naruto, effectively ending the couple's querell prematurely.

"W-what, where are you going?" asked a bewildered Kushina.

"That is private information, don't worry though, I'm sure we'll meet again in the future." replied Naruto neutrally, handing Kushina's baby back into her as he prepared for his departure.

"B-but, I thought..."

"That was going to stay in Konoha with you and we would live together as a happy family for the rest our lives, sorry, but there will be no happily ever after story, at least, not yet." said Naruto coldly.

"But, I don't understand, what could be more important than family?" asked Kushina, completely flabbergusted by the blonde's change in attitude and demeanor.

"The masked guy that attacked you is still alive, I have to go and make preparations to deal with him in the future, he is a threat to the shinobi world, and a threat to you. I can protect you and the world better from the shadows, all I want is for you and Natsumi to be safe and happy, and to do that, I have to make sure that there is an actual world for you to live in." explained Naruto.

"I can take care of myself...!"

"I know you can, but you're married, what if you get pregnant again? Your seal will weaken and you'll be in danger once more. Even if you don't get pregnant again, you still have a child to raise, your enemies will come after her and they will use her to get to you and Minato. I can prevent that if I work in the shadows, I can stop your enemies long before they come even close to you and Natsumi. Besides, I have other personal errands that I have to run, mine is not a life that I can simply put on hold for anything at the moment. I want a happy life with my family more than anything else, but I'd rather be seperated from you if it means you will be safer in the present and the future." explained Naruto.

"T-this is not fair! It's not supposed to be like this, we were supposed to be a happy family, you were supposed to be Natsumi-chan's brother!" cried Kushina.

_'I'm sorry mom, but I can't risk Konoha discovering my true origins, even if it means I can't be with you.' _thought Naruto.

"You're acting like it's the end of the world, it's not like you and I won't meet again." said Naruto with a kind smile, hoping to get Kushina to cheer up a little, but that didn't even come close to being anywhere near as effective as it should have been, as he thought it should have been.

"You know, I could order you to stay by my side, I'm the matriah of the Uzumaki clan, I am the clan head. According to clan law, you are bound to my authority." exclaimed Kushina with a deranged expression.

"I know, but unfortunately, that is an order that I will have to ignore..." No sooner had his words registered in Kushina's mind, did Naruto's shinobi instincts kick in, warning him of the danger that was lurking beneath the earth. Chakra chains burst out of the ground from beneath the blonde Uzumaki's feet at mind blowing speeds, but Naruto was too fast, although, the fact that his guard was always up might have helped too, the blonde using the splitting void migration to teleport himself far away from not just the emotionally unstable Uzumaki, but away from Fire Country altogether.

_'Where'd he go?' _thought Kushina frantically, her head moving left and right rapidly in search of the illusive blonde Uzumaki, afraid that she might have lost her only chance to capture the thirteen year old prodigy, her only chance to 'convince' him not to desert his family.

"I think he's gone." said Minato.

"Oh no! W-what have I done? I...I drove him away, I drove him away!" cried Kushina, falling onto her knees in despair as tears of heartache sped down her rosy cheeks, clutching baby Natsumi against her bossom for dear life in her emotional distress, even baby Natsumi was wailing in agony, though whether because Kushina was clutching too hard on her or because of her big brother's departure was another story altogether.

Minato felt relieved that Kushina hadn't crushed the life out of him, and wanted nothing more than to stretch out his saw muscles, and maybe even get a massage, but that would have to wait a little while. He had a distressed wife to comfort, a dead Hokage's wife and assitant to report, and an un-named masked man's attack and plans to disclose, all the above clearly more important than his own aching muscles.

_'Did she just try to capture him? I see, she's even willing to go that far if it means getting him to stay by hers and Natsumi's side, she's always wanted a big and happy family, I just never thought that she was willing to go that far to fulfil that dream.' _thought Minato sadly, kneeling in front of Kushina before embracing her and his daughter, providing a caring shoulder to cry on for the love of his life and his beloved daughter.

**Akatsuki base in Grass Country...**

"I knew I would **find you here, **Tobi." said Zetsu, growing out of the earth a few metres behind Obito, who was standing dead still at the foot of the gedo mazo stature and the single living clone of Hashirama senju that was connected to the mazo.

They were in what was probably the main Akatsuki base, which was built below the surface of the earth near Kusagakure no sato. Only four members actually knew about this place, the deceased Uchiha Madara, Uchiha Obito, Zetsu, and Uzumaki Nagato. Most of the members didn't even know about Madara's role in the akatsuki, and none of them, apart from Zetsu knew that Obito even existed.

"Zetsu, what took you so long?" asked Obito robotically, not really caring about the answer to the question, his mind filled with questions, possible answers, suspisions, worries, and plans for the future.

"Unlike you, I'm not a teleporter, **some of us actually need to travel to our distinations." **replied Zetsu simply.

"I see..." was all Obito said.

**"You were defeated, but that is no reason to sulk around, **Madara-sama taught you better than that." said Zetsu, displaying a level of sympathy that was worthy of a rock.

"I was just thinking, how was it that Uzumaki Naruto knew so much about us. You are one of the best sensor types in the elemental nations and you are the earth itself, should it not be near impossible for someone to spy on us without your awareness?" asked Obito retorically.

**"What are you insinuating? **Are you trying to say that I am the one giving away information to our enemies? **Are you calling me a traitor?" **asked Zetsu with a pissed off expression.

"Nagato and Konan believe that I am Uchiha Madara, and Konan is just a little girl who doesn't know anything. Even Nagato doesn't know everything. The same goes for Kisame and Yagura, that leaves only you..." Obito trailed off with an acussatory tone.

"Black zetsu carries Madara-sama's will itself, how could you possibly think that I would betray you?" asked white Zetsu indignantly.

"So then...the two of you are innocent, then how about a deal, you prove your loyalty to me and our cause, and I never question it again, no matter what...how about it?" asked Obito, still not turning around to face what is and should be his closest ally.

**"You will not insult my intergrity again?" **asked Zetsu.

"I promise." said Obito.

**"Fair enough, **I have nothing to hide. **Do your worst." **challenged Zetsu.

"Your evaluation entails an interogation followed by an important assignment based on the results of the interogation, I will need the two of you to seperate from each other for a minute or two for the interogation." explained the young Uchiha prodigy, turning around slowly to face his only true comrade.

**"You plan to use your genjutsu to interogate us huh...? **Fine, do as you please." replied Zetsu confidently, rising completely from the earth, taking off his Akatsuki cloak, and then finally splitting apart into his two respective halves.

Some might have wondered why Zetsu had to split up in order to be interogated with a genjutsu, the answer was surprisingly simple, Black and White Zetsu were immune to genjutsu when they were not seperated. The theory behind this phenomena was simple, in the shinobi world, it was a traditionally accepted practice that if a genjutsu was beyond a single person's ability to break out of, than a partner or comrade had to filter his or her chakra into said person's chakra network in order to disrupt the genjutsu. This method was 99.9 percent effective, in other words, it always worked. Zetsu, being two people in one, could not be affected by genjutsu because he always had a partner to break him out of the genjutsu. If the white half got affected, then, the black halve's mingling chakra would immediately break him out of the jutsu and vice versor, thus, why Obito prefered that they be seperated for the interogation.

"Stay still, this will not take long." Obito said, the tamoe around his right pupil spinning rapidly as he made direct eye contact with white Zetsu, capturing the white plant man in one of his strongest genjutsus. As soon as the genjutsu took full effect, a vacant expression morphed into the white halve's facial expression, indicating to Obito that he was ready for proper interogation.

"White Zetsu...?"

"Yes..." replied White Zetsu monotously.

"Have you ever given away information about me, Uchiha Madara, Uzumaki Nagato, yourself, or any part of our plans without mine, Nagato's or Madara-sensei's permission?" asked Obito.

"No..."

"Have you ever spoken about such information carelessly, or in a situation where someone might have heard you?" asked Obito.

"No.."

"Have you, in writting, or any other method given out any such information?"

"No.." replied Zetsu.

"Have you ever betrayed me, Black Zetsu, Madara-sensei, or Nagato in any way whatsoever?" asked Obito.

"No, I haven't." replied the white plant.

"So, is it safe to say that you are not, in any way, a traitor?" asked Obito.

"It is safe to say so." White Zetsu said.

"Fair enough!" said Obito, closing his right eye momentarily as he cancelled the jutsu on the white zetsu, the life returning to the plant man's facial expression as he regained consciousness.

"How did I do?" asked White Zetsu with a hint of amusement.

**"Do you even have to ask?" **replied his black halve irritably.

"Heh, I guess not, me being still alive and all." said the white halve nonchalantly.

"Black Zetsu, it is your turn..." trailed off Obito with a sinister undertone, shocking both zetsu's considerably. Black Zetsu was born from Madara's will its self, to doubt him was the same as calling Madara a traitor, it was basically the same as insinuating that Madara would betray himself.

"I know what you're thinking, but I'm not taking any chances, complacency will not be tolerated! Our mission means too much to me, I can't afford to take things for granted!" explained Obito forcefully.

**"Hn, your dedication to the cause, while somewhat twisted, is most inspiring. Madara-sama made a wise decision when he elected you as his successor." **remarked Black Zetsu off handedly.

"Hn, thanks, but at this stage, flattery will get you no where." replied Obito.

**"Hehehe! Fine, I already said this once, but I'll say it again, do as you please kid." **replied an amused Black Zetsu, although hard to tell with his lack of facial expressions.

Obito, given the go ahead by his dark skinned comrade, wasted little time as he quickly established direct eye contact with the black side of the plant man, repeating the procedure that he'd conducted on the black fellow's other half, but unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how one looked at the situation, finding no proof that Zetsu was ever, in any way at all, unfaithful to the cause.

"Alright, your loyalty has been confirmed. I can now tell you about my plans for the future, and...about your assignment. But before that, I want to extent an apology to you, for doubting your intergrity, it was uncalled for, and quite honestly rude of me. Good comrades are hard to come by in this acursed world, one should treat them a little better when you have found them." said Obito with what seemed to be genuine sincerity.

"No hard feelings pal, you're a young guy with a heavy burden to carry, **there's alot of pressure on your shoulders. I'm not worried, or offended for that matter, **your actions were not entirely unwarranted. **If anything, I'm quite impressed by your vigilance and dedication." **praised Zetsu, having joined together again and now adorning his Akatsuki cloak.

"Thank you, that means more to me then you might think." replied Obito.

"So, what are you planning to do now that your true identity has been discovered? **Now that you've lost the spare eye that Madara-sama left for you? **You've also lost Hoshigaki Kisame, **the Mizukage and by extention, Kiri as well. **That is a lot of military power, **all gone in a single day." **asked Zetsu.

"I'm well aware of that, but it's not the end of the world, I still have Nagato and the Akatsuki, and I still have you, the gedo mazo, and Hashirama's living clone. Things are not as bad as they might seem." Obito pointed out.

"True, but what was the point of recruiting Kisame and taking over Kiri in the first place if this was enough, **and what was the point of using the power behind Madara-sama's name if you thought your own power would be enough?" **asked Zetsu with a confused expression, by confused expression meaning the white half of his face.

"The Mizukage, Kiri, and Kisame were just one of my long term plans, I already had back-ups in case something similar to what happened occured. Initially, the plan was to use the Kyubi attack to destroy the Uchiha clan and weaken Konoha in the process. Madara-sama wanted revenge on the Uchiha for their betrayal, and I wanted myself some spare eyes." explained Obito.

"I can't help but notice that you said this was only your initial plan, **does that mean that you have changed your mind about destroying the Uchiha clan?" **asked Zetsu.

"Yes, I will no longer destroy the Uchiha clan, I will recruit them, they will become part of the Akatsuki, another branch of the organisation so to speak." explained Obito cryptically, causing Zetsu's left eye, in other words, the white half's eye to widen in surprise.

**"That's ridiculous, how do you plan to recruit a whole clan into the organisation? **Yeah, how do you plan to even get them out of Konoha?" asked Zetsu incredulously.

"Relations between Konoha and the Uchiha clan are not very strong, in fact, it could be said that there is a very real power struggle between the Uchiha clan and Konoha authorities. The Uchiha clan has been treated with unfairness and political opression since even before Madara-sensei attacked Konoha. Things got worse when Madara-sensei attacked with the Kyubi, and even worse when Tobirama took over as the second Hokage. Minato-sensei believes that Uchiha Madara was my sensei, but if anything, Hiruzen, Danzo, and the elder advisers have always been weary of the Uchiha clan, they will suspect that the clan had something to do with this, that I wasn't trained by Uchiha Madara, but that I am a product of the Uchiha clan's betrayal against the leaf." explained Obito, taking a slow breathe before continuing with his explanation.

"The Uchiha clan will be further isolated from Konoha, and further distanced from the Hokage title and village politics. If I know Fugaku as much as I think I do, then he won't want to take that lying down..."

**"You believe that the Uchiha clan will attempt a coupe?" **asked Zetsu.

"Yes, that is what part of the whole plot for attacking Konoha with the Kyubi was. Either me and the Kyubi would destroy Konoha and the Uchiha clan ourselves so that I can get some spare eyes, or we would fail and Konoha would help in destroying the clan, the clan would weaken Konoha, and I would get my spare eyes. It was a win-win situation. The plan however, has changed slightly, we will still allow Konoha to ignite the Uchiha clan's will of hate on their own, rather then destroy them, I will use that hate to get them to switch sides. Transportation is not an issue, I can use Kamui to get them out of Konoha without detection." explained Obito with elation, staring at his hands as if seeing them for the first time since he was born, as if his destiny was unfolding on the palms of his hands.

"Isupposeyourplanisn'tentirelyoutofthephysicalrea lmsofpossibilty**, it's quite poetic actually, a long lost son coming back to liberate the family from opression and to save them from destruction. **You'll be a hero amongst your brethren, a living legend even. **They** **will** **worship** **the** **very** **ground** **that** **you** **walk** **on**." said Zetsu.

"Worship the ground upon which I walk huh? Perhaps, but if that is to happen, I will need to show them something that they have never seen before, I will have to make them believe in me."

"Make them believe in you? **I would have thought that liberating them and saving them from destruction would have surved that purpose." **

"No, there are bound to be some Uchiha clan members whose eyes are too weak to see through the deception that is Hashirama's will of fire, those people will pose a threat to our goals. I should know, after all, I was once one of those ignorant members of the Uchiha clan before I met Madara-sensei." said Obito, his single operating eye narrowing in distaste.

**"There is no need to worry about something like that, **I will send a parasite clone to Konoha as soon as possibe, actually, I will send two parasite clones." said Zetsu, coming up with an effective plan on the spot.

It didn't take a genius, at least not according to Obito, to figure out what Zetsu had in mind. A zetsu parasite clone had the ability to execute a perfect transformation of anyone whose chakra he was able to absorb, even to the point of mimicking the chakra and abilities of his targets, that is, if he knew what said abilities were. Therefore, Obito was able to conclude that Zetsu probably planned to kill and maybe even eat one of the Uchiha clan members, transform into him, and then take his place in the clan until Obito came to liberate the clan. By then, he would have concorted a list of the Konoha loyalists in the clan along with the evidence needed to present to Fugaku. Obito would then ask for Fugaku's permission to eliminate said members and everything would go smoothly from than on. Probably, the other parasite clone would remain in the shadows and constantly mask his chakra with the mayfly technique, in other words, one clone would spy on the Uchiha clan from the inside whereas the other would spy from the outside. A brilliant plan indeed, even Obito had to say so himself.

"That's a very good idea, you have my permission to proceed..."

**"We're already on it." **replied Zetsu hastily.

"Good, now all I have to worry about is getting them to believe in me, which is where you come in again, Zetsu. This is to do with the assignment that I told you about earlier." said Obito vaguely.

"I don't get this believe in you business." wined White Zetsu.

**"Idiot! Obito died with a terrible reputation as a shinobi, Tobi will have to do something special to get Fugaku to believe in his power. Pretending to be Madara-sensei won't work now that Uzumaki Naruto, Uzumaki Kushina, and Namikaze Minato know who he really is. Although, I can't help but wonder what we can possibly do to improve the situation?" **asked Black Zetsu.

"I'm going to become the fifth sage of the six paths, I'm going to get the rinnegan, and I'm going to need you to help me get it. After this assignment, I will never doubt your loyalty again, that was the agreement." said Obito nonchalantly, shocking Zetsu considerably with what the bipolar shinobi thought his leader was implying.

"You can't be serious! You want me to try and kill Nagato? That's impossible, even for me!" exclaimed white zetsu with a horrified expression.

**"Even if I could defeat Pein, what would be the purpose of retrieving the rinnegan so soon when Nagato is yet to fulfil the purpose that Madara-sama had for him?" **asked black zetsu with an unreadable tone.

"I don't intend for you to kill Nagato, the person I want you to kill is Hatake Kakashi. I have all the ingredients required to awaken my own rinnegan except for one, the only thing I need now is my other eye." Obito casually explained to Zetsu's immense surprise.

Under normal circumstances, Obito would have needed to implant his brother's, mother's, sister's, or father's eyes in order to first awaken the eternal manyekyo sharingan before he became eligible to awaken the eyes of the sage. But the neccessity to switch eyes was only a result of a diluted bloodline, or rather, and incomplete bloodline. Obito however was the complete article, he had a perfect fusion with Hashirama's cells and therefore had both the first son's ocular powers and the second son's physical lifeforce, he didn't need to switch eyes to obtain eternal vision, he already had it. Now he just needed his other eye so that he could awaken the rinnegan.

**"Grrrr...it was stupid of you not to have taken your eye back when you encountered the copy ninja in Kirigakure. **I mean, he was just lying there unconscious on the battle field. **It would have been so easy just to kill him and retrieve your eye back then." **Zetsu grouched, unable to mask his irritation at the young Uchiha.

"That was before Madara taught me everything that I know now, I was ahm... wasn't quite as...mature as I am right now, not quite as enlightened so to speak."

**"Hmmm...point taken. **Still, I can't help but wonder how all this is going to work." said Zetsu with an uncertain frown.

"Heh...? What seems to be the problem?"

"Nagato is under the belief that he is the chosen savior of the world, that he is the reincarnation of a god that will deliver this world from it's darkness. **And he believes this because he is under the impression that he awakened the rinnegan on his own. **How do you expect him to react when he sees you with your own rinnegan?" asked Zetsu curiously, curious, but not really worried at all, knowing that Obito probably gave enough thought on the matter already, the kid was no idiot at all, at least, not since he started taking life a little more seriously.

"The way I see it, there are only two ways that we can handle the situation. One, we could simply inform Fugaku and the rest of the clan not to disclose any information about my rinnegan under the penalty of death, as clan head,Fugaku has the authority to pass out such a law, and it must be obeyed by the whole clan. Another likely scenario would be to simply keep the clan and the Akatsuki from meeting or even knowing about each other until the final stages of our plan, after all, I don't intend to use the Uchiha clan's military power until Akatsuki has collected all the tailed beasts. The driving force behind the Uchiha clan's recruitment is to add to our military power for the Fourth Shinobi war. Nevetheless, I have more then enough time to make my decision, I don't need to make it now. I'll wait and see how things pen out and act accordingly." explained Obito.

**"Sounds like a good plan." **

"It is isn't it? Anyway, after the attack on Minato and Kushina, Konoha will likely gatelock themselves for quite a substantial amount of time, they'll try to keep their strongest shinobi close by in case there is a follow attack on the village. This means that Hatake Kakashi is unlikely to go beyond Konoha's walls for quite a period of time, as a result, I'm giving you three to six months to kill Kakashi and return my eye." said Obito authoratively.

"No problem man, **it shall be done!"**

**The Following Day: Water Country...**

"It's been a long time, my friends." greeted Naruto, bowing respectfully to his comrades and teachers.

"Hehehe! You're looking a little taller...squirt!" said Kisame, causing Zabuza and even Mangetsu to laugh at the blonde's expense, okay, Zabuza only smirked a little, but it was close enough, the blonde twitching irritably at the unwarranted insult to his height, he was freakin tall for a thirteen year old damnit.

They were deep within a forest, standing smack in the middle of a clearing with an incredibly thick mist masking their visuality to possible oncoming enemies, a mist that Zabuza formed and was maintaining with his chakra. It wasn't really neccessary as both Samehada and Mangetsu were sensor types, but caution and vigilance were just a few of Zabuza's strongest traits.

"Yeah whatever Fishy-sensei." replied Naruto casually. Mangestu and even Samehada could be heard crackling at Kisame's expense, the smirk on the shark man's face evapourating immediately, wrapping his right hand around Samehada's handle as he adopted a fighting stance.

"It seems to me like you forgot your manners at the Whirlpool ruins, you want to call me that again brat?" asked Kisame menacingly.

"No, I'd rather not thank you, there are more important things to do then fighting over something as mundane as your suspicious heritage" mocked Naruto with a sinister undertone.

"Why you...!"

"That's enough!" Zabuza snapped, blasting the two swordsmen with a sizeable amount of killing intent, not enough to freeze them in place, or even enough to scare them, but more then enough to get their attention, enough to get them to obey him.

"We have more serious issues at hand, we don't have time for this childish bickering!" exclaimed Zabuza angrily.

"You're right, so...tell me, what happened while I was away?" asked Naruto with a curious expression.

"Yagura inacted a terrible new law about six months ago, he managed to convince many people that bloodline limits are demonic and that they are cause of all wars. Kiri is under a state of civil war for the past six months, and many clans have fallen since the purges began. Only I and my brother survived from the Hozuki clan, and Mei was the only survivor from the Terumi clan. " explained Mangetsu.

"I know about the purges, and...I'm sorry about your clan, Mangetsu! I'm glad your brother is okay though, at least you managed to save him." said Naruto sympathetically.

"How do you know about the purges?" asked Zabuza with eyes narrowed in suspision.

"I've been investigating Yagura and the person pulling his strings behind the scenes, that's how I found out about the purges." explained Naruto. Naturally, Zabuza and Mangestu spotted surprize and curiousity in their facial expressions, but Kisame's reaction was a little different, the Blue man's eyes narrowing at the blonde with a mixture of unease and malice.

"The person pulling Yagura's strings? Ao mentioned something about a foreign chakra in Yagura's chakra network, as if he was under some sort of permanent genjutsu, or at least, a very powerful and long lasting one." said Mangetsu.

"He's right, Yagura is being controlled by a genjutsu, and I know who the person who is controlling him, in fact, I was locked in a three way battle with him and the Yellow Flash just yesterday in Fire Country...listen to me!" exclaimed Naruto hastily, spotting the incredulous expression on Zabuza's face, cutting the demon off before he could disrupt his explanation.

"Listen to what? You expect me to believe that you were in a fight with the yellow flash and managed to survive! Don't be ridiculous, if you want to play..." Zabuza almost choked on his own words, stopping his rant prematurely as a dark abyss opened up in the space behind Naruto, almost as if a giant knife was dissecting the atmosphere itself.

"This is my slashed throat technique, it is a space-time technique that allows me to travel to a dimension of my own creation, or anywhere else in the world really. I used the sealing and barrier knowledge that I found in the Whirlpool Ruins to create this space-time technique amongst others. I also have another battle usable one that I named 'splitting void migration', it is a technique that puts me on par with the Yellow Flash, in other words, a technique that can match the Hiraishin no Jutsu." explained Naruto, his swordsman comrades staring at him with their jaws on the ground.

"I...impossible!" exclaimed Zabuza.

"Not at all, but very difficult though." said Naruto.

It took a long time, almost ten minutes for the trio to get over the blonde Uzumaki's new revelation, finding it extremely hard to believe that he was a space-time practitioner, much less one of that high of a calibre. Asking many questions about his jutsu and even asking him to show them the so called splitting void that was suppossedly on par with the hiraishin no jutsu. The blonde was more than happy to oblige, they were his masters after all and he thought that they deserved at least to see what he could do. Mangetsu even folded his hands into the ram hand seal and kept on shouting out the word 'kai' as he tried to release the non-existent genjutsu that he thought he was under, but to no avail. After answering all of their questions about his jutsu, and after they had calmed down eventually, the conversation continued from where it left off.

"So..." Zabuza trailed off.

"Yes?" asked Naruto.

"There's something I want to know, what exactly were you doing in Fire Country? And how did you end up in a battle with the Yellow Flash?" asked Zabuza bluntly, a hint of distrust and suspision audible in his tone.

"You may or may not know this, but Namikaze Minato is secretly married to the matriah of the Uzumaki clan, the Kyubi jinchuuriki, Uzumaki Kushina." Naruto revealed to the utter shock and surprise of his comrades.

"Uzumaki Kushina is married to the Yellow Flash!" exclaimed Mangetsu.

"Yes, they have a baby daughter too, she was born yesterday. Also, that is part of the reason I was in Fire Country, I wanted to see the new heiress and I wanted to talk to Kushina-sama, to try and convince her to defect and come with me." Naruto lied through his teeth, although part of his explanation was the truth. He did want to see Kushina's baby, and getting her to defect did cross his mind, but he quickly wrote that off as impossible. Kushina was in love with Minato and about to give birth to his child, she would never leave him and her life in Konoha for a total stranger, Uzumaki or not. Also, Minato's Hiraishin formula was intergrated into her jinchuuriki seal, escape was impossible for her as long as the Yellow Flash was alive, unless she was willing to fight and kill him, which would be very difficult even with the power of the Kyubi and Uzumaki kinjutsu.

"I see, but how did you end up in a threeway fight with the Yellow Flash and this mysterious man who is supposedly controlling Yagura with a genjutsu, and whose name you have yet to mention?" asked Zabuza.

"The man was wearing a spiral like mask over his face and a hood over his head." said Naruto, pausing slightly as he gauged Kisame's reaction, who was now sweating bullets, although trying his best to act unfazed.

"He attacked the yellow flash and used the new born baby to seperate him from Kushina-sama. She was left defenseless, this is because, a jinchuuriki's seal is severely weakened during child birth and it requires a substantial amount of energy to stop the bijuu from breaking out during the birth. The masked man tried to extract the bijuu from her seal, but I couldn't allow him to kill her, so I stopped him, saved her, fixed her seal, and long story short, ended up in a threeway fight between this man, me, and Namikaze Minato." explained Naruto, taking a short breathe before continuing with his explanation.

"I will give you a more detailed version of events later, but right now, all you have to know is that this man tries to pass himself off as Uchiha Madara, and the nature and magnitude of his power is not too far behind that man's level. However, I managed to smash his mask off during the battle, and the yellow flash was able to recognise him as his long lost student, who was supposed to have died a few years ago. His name is Uchiha Obito." explained Naruto to the surprise of his comrades, especially Kisame.

_'Impossible! He knows, he really knows!' _thought Kisame wearily.

"Uchiha Obito...? I can't say I've ever heard of him." said Mangetsu.

"You wouldn't have, he wasn't much of a shinobi back than, I guess in a way, he was the black sheep of his family. Although what he really was, is a late bloomer, because make no mistake, the guy is very intelligent and his talent is immense." cautioned Naruto.

"Duely noted, but tell us about his abilities, if he really is the one controlling Yagura, then we're going to need some intel on this Uchiha before we proceed with the coup." said Zabuza.

"Wait a minute!" Mangetsu cut in.

"This doesn't make sense at all, how would this guy have been able to come in and out of Kiri as frequently as he should have without anyone noticing him? I mean, we have the Bishiteki clan (Means, microscopic, it's Ranmaru's clan) with their all seeing eyes, we have Ao and his byakugan, and we have many sensors inside the village." Mangetsu asked.

"That happened because of his abilities. Uchiha Obito's has an advanced sharingan known as the mangyeko sharingan. His eyes have the ability to manipulate space and time."

"He's a space-time user too, like you and the Yellow Flash?" asked Mangetsu.

"Yes, like me and the yellow flash." Naruto replied.

"So, how does he manipulate space and time, as in, what is the extent of his abilities?" asked Zabuza.

"He uses a technique known as 'Kamui.' this technique has many features to it. For one, like I can with my slashed throat technique, Obito can open a portal with his right eye and travel to another dimension or location by sucking himself into the vortex. Also, he can suck in other objects and people as well. The are two weaknesses to this technique, one, he can only use it at close range and he needs to be tangible in order to activate it." explained Naruto.

"Tangible, what's that supposed to mean exactly?" asked Mangetsu with a confused expression.

"It is one of the features of his technique, the ability to become completely intangible. This is his ultimate defense, simply allowing all objects and attacks to faze through him. The only way to defeat him is to aim for the moment that he becomes tangible again, in other words, the moment where he tries to counter attack, or suck you or himself into his portal, as he needs to materialize himself in order to do that." Naruto explained with a serious expression.

"No wonder he was confident enough to attack the yellow flash, his abilities are insane!" exclaimed Mangetsu in awe.

"That's not all, he also has a time limit to his intangibility, he can only remain intangible for a maximum of five minutes at a time, and one should avoid direct eye contact with him, or any Uchiha for that matter. He also had good reaction speed and reflexes, be weary of that too." Naruto warned.

_'This brat knows too much, but there is no way that he could have found out about my connections to Obito. Still, I'm going to have to have to take care of him now, in fact, I'm going to have to kill Mangetsu and Zabuza as well. Too bad, I actually liked them quite a lot, I almost felt at home with them.' _thought Kisame solemnly.

"I'll make sure to remember that. I knew I made the right decision by allowing you to live that night, you've become a valuable asset for our cause. Although, I can't help but feel uneasy about your attachment to Kushina and her daughter." said Zabuza.

"There's nothing I can do about that, my feelings for her won't change no matter what, she is a wonderful woman, and she is not only family, but the matriah of the Uzumaki clan, I can't think of her as an enemy, although, I guess I can't think of her as an ally either." replied the blonde Uzumaki.

"Hmmm...I guess I understand." Zabuza said, begrudgingly accepting the blonde Uzumaki's circumstance as there was nothing either one of them could do about it.

_'At least he isn't naive enough to think that he could trust her with his and our secrets despite her service to an enemy village.' _thought Zabuza.

"Good, now, I'd like to hear about your status and I'd also like to know how many clans have survived and how Mei is doing." Naruto requested.

"We are almost ready for another coupe. We have recruited the demon brothers and Raiga as allies. We were also deliberating on whether to allow Raiga to try out for our organisation, his sword skills are quite impressive and his lightning manipulation is of a high standard. He would make a good wielder for the fangs. Also, the surviving clans so far are the Kaguya, Bishiteki, and the Yuki clan. All the others have already been annihilated and the only survivors from the Hozuki clan are Mangetsu and his baby brother, Suigetsu. Mei is the only survivor of the Terumi clan. Oh, and by the way, there is a rebellion force that is organised and lead by her, the Yuki and Bishiteki clan have joined the rebels, but the Kaguya have refused and chosen to fly solo instead. She tried to get us to join too, but we have our own plans." Zabuza explained.

"Hn, but wouldn't the coupe have a higher chance of success with her military strength, I mean, she does have quite a large shinobi force." suggested Naruto, left eyebrow raised in amusement.

"No, it will be an espionage type of mission, an assassination! Stealth will be required, we can't have a whole battalion for something like that!" exclaimed Zabuza.

"Yeah, that, or you just don't like the idea of taking orders from a girl, hehe!" Mangetsu snickered.

"Watch it!" snapped Zabuza furiously.

_'Mei-chan seems to be doing well if she has managed to organise and lead a rebellion against Yagura despite the complete annihilation of her clan. I can't imagine how much pain and suffering she must be feeling inside.' _thought Naruto fondly, genuinely concerned about the woman he secretly had feelings for. He hadn't seen her since their last training session under Ao's tutelage before he left Kiri, and they hadn't communicated since then. Naruto couldn't wait to see her again, and maybe even have a nice little spar and some casual talk afterwards like old times.

_'I wasn't there for her in what was probably the lowest point of her life when her clan was demised, I wonder what she'll think of me now? Will she even care that I have returned, or will she simply hate me?' _thought Naruto wearily.

"Hn, I guess it doesn't really matter, I'll take care of Yagura myself, I've mastered the chakra chain technique to a level where I can supress even a bijuu and I am the only one that can get close to Yagura with zero chance of detection, I also have the best tools to take care of him. A simple application of the contract seal should be enough to release him from the genjutsu, from then on, I'll proceed to convince him to step down and appoint a successor, assuming he doesn't commit seppuku when he realises what he has done while he was under Obito's control." Naruto explained.

"Don't be ridiculous, it can't possibly be as easy as that!" Mangetsu shouted incredulously.

"I said it was simple, not easy." the blonde deadpanned.

"Oh...hehe, sorry." Mangetsu apologised sheepishly.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Why not just kill him? What purpose does it serve to have him step down and elect a new Mizukage? Why not just kill him and seal the sanbi into yourself like we planned to do?" asked Kisame curiously.

"Simply killing him will only spark the flames of war. His followers will want vengeance for their master's death and will come after us. In such a scenario, it would mean killing more than half of Kiri's shinobi population just to reclaim control of the nation. But if we free Yagura from the genjutsu, than we can at least get him to stop the purges and formally announce a successor before he decides whether he still wants to continue to live under the authority of a new Mizukage or if he wants to die." Naruto answered.

"I see, that makes an overwhelming amount of sense, you've thought this through thoroughly haven't you." Kisame replied.

"Of course, many people's lives rest upon the decisions we make, we have to be vigilant." Naruto said.

"So, the next Mizukage, who will it be?" Mangetsu asked.

"Zabuza-senpei of course." said Naruto as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"No!" Zabuza said sternly.

"Huh...? What's wrong Zabuza, demon-kun getting cold feet? Hahahahaha!" asked Mangetsu, laughing maniacly at the scorned demon.

"Your childishness knows no limits, I'm almost ashamed to be associated with you." replied Zabuza angrily.

"Hahaha! Come on man don't be so sensitive, we're all men here aren't we?" said Mangetsu cheerfully, wrapping his right arm around Zabuza's shoulders as a show of friendship.

"You'll unhand me, if you value that arm..." warned Zabuza maliciously.

"Haha, we both know that I'm immune to physical attacks." said the Hozuki prodigy with a cocky smile.

"Whatever!" said Zabuza dismissively, doing his very best to reign in his otherwise volatile temperament.

"You act like such an old man." Mangetsu said, sighing in exasperation at the demon of the mist's lack of humour.

"Anyway, I thought it was your dream to become the Godaime, you have an opportunity right here to do exactly that and you're just going to turn it down?" asked Mangetsu, now adopting a more serious expression and posture.

"A Kage has to be the strongest shinobi in his nation, or at least close to that level. Right now, both Kisame and Naruto are still stronger than I am, heck, Naruto fought the yellow flash and an Uchiha who was able to turn the Mizukage into puppet for his own amusement and still came out intact. If a Kage's name and power alone has to be enough to dissuade enemies from invading his nation, than, right now, Naruto is the candidate with the most credentials."

"I understand that, but...doesn't experience and wisdom also count for something?" Mangetsu argued.

"Wisdom won't be a problem, you should know that by now. Naruto's wisdom goes deeper than the years he has spent on this cursed world, also, not to mention the fact that he was raised by a sage. Besides, it isn't like we won't be there to help him, he will be surrounded by experienced people who will help him make decisions until he finds his feet. That is, if he even needs any help, I for one don't believe he will." Zabuza replied.

" I see, but, are you sure about this?" asked Mangetsu, the idea of best friend giving up on his dream so abruptly not quite sitting well with him,

"Yes, I've been thinking about this for a long time, ever since we took Naruto in as an apprentice." Zabuza said, causing Mangetsu's eyes to widen significantly in surprise, shocked that his best friend has had such thoughts for so long without him even knowing about it.

"I...I see." muttered Mangetsu, a thoughtful expression etched onto his facial features.

"So it's been decided than, Naruto will become the Godaime Mizukage?" asked Kisame retorically.

_'It would like to think that it would have been better if I was elected as the new Mizukage, but...the way things look now, it wouldn't have changed anything. I can't continue Obito's Kiri project without killing the brat first. Looks like I'm going to have to kill him, whether I do it as the Mizukage or not doesn't change anything, the end result will be the same regardless...that is to say, I will take over Kirigakure no Sato and continue Yagura's legacy, or rather, Obito's legacy.' _Kisame thought confidently.

"Yes, Naruto! You are now the Godaime Mizukage!" said Zabuza.

"So you're not even going to ask me if I accept or not?" asked Naruto with a raised eyebrow.

"That's because he wasn't asking you, he was telling you. Basically, it's an order." said Mangetsu with a toothy grin.

"Heh, should have known." Naruto said, spotting his own toothy grin, displaying the trademark shark teeth of the shinobi swordsman as laughter ensured amongst the group of swordsman.

"Alright! Since you have decided to put your trust in me, I will return the gesture to you by showing you something. I'm also going to share all my plans with you for the future...for our future." said the blonde Uzumaki.

"Plans for the future?/Show us what?" asked Mangetsu and Zabuza respectively.

"Come, I want all three of you to follow me, we're going to use the slashed throat migration to go to the place that I want to show. I'll explain everything on our way there." said Naruto as he turned around and walked towards the space-time void that had remained open for the enirety of their conversation, the three shinobi swordsmen following right behind him.

**Three Hours Later: Back to Kirigakure no Sato...**

If one were simply gazing at the sky, they in the forests of Kiri, they would have seen the what appeared to be the atmosphere itself getting slashed clean through as a dark portal opened up in the sky, three shinobi jumping out of the portal and landing at a clearing in the forest and the atmosphere stitching itself together again. The three shinobi in question non other than Uzumaki Naruto, Momochi Zabuza, and Hozuki Mangetsu.

"Wow! That was a quite an experience, your dimension is cool, and what you did to Whirlpool country was even cooler!" Mangetsu exclaimed giddily.

"Yes, your recruits and plans for them are even better, I'm more than impressed. You've grown well...Naruto." Zabuza praised, genuinely pleased and even excited by what was to come for Kirigakure no Sato, thinking back on what the blonde had shown and told them.

When they entered the portal, they had travelled to Whirlpool country, a rebuilt Village Hidden in the Whirlpools to be exact. It was by far the largest and most beautiful hidden village he had ever seen in his entire existence. Using state of the art technology originating from Snow Country and Sky Country and even whirlpool's own unique kinjutsu to create what was basically place worthy of empire status. Everything was there, floating systems from Sky Country that allowed buildings to float in the skies and state of the art marine technology from snow country to create underwater fortresses were just a few of the architectural miracles that were created. And of course, everything was re-enforced by Uzumaki sealing kinjutsu. The floating systems and underwater systems meant that land nature was not wolly dominated by humans, and hence, allowing a rich development of wildlife. Seeing all this marvellous technology and wildlife co-existing in that manner was so magical that for a while, the Demon Of The Mist hand wondered if he hadn't accidentally strayed into the afterlife.

According to Naruto, this place would serve as a sort of main base for the Kiri empire. Kirigakure no Sato would still retain it's independence for the most part, but when a threat came that threatened any part of the empire, or the empire as a whole, than they would all rendezvous at this place or even permantly move in should their variious villages be destroyed.

They had also met a few groups lead by very powerful people that Naruto had recruited for the cause. One of them was former Sky Country turned Sora(Sky) clan leader. a man known as Sora Shinno, a rather tall and muscular man with dark eyes and ragged black hair and an equally ragged and black beard, wearing black shinobi pants with red leg warmers and black shinobi sandals and a dark red sleeveless top that is buttoned up to the lower part of his chest, showing off his more than impressive physique. He also doesn't seem to be carrying anything special with him in terms of weapons but does have a few scrolls on the left side of his waste and a weapons pouch on his right thigh. The man was also well groomed in Sora clan kinjutsu.

Naruto had introduced them to the man and explained that Sky Country had nearly become extinct during the second shinobi world war and that Shinno was born near the end of that era and inherited a once great but then struggling shinobi village. He explained that because of their depleted numbers and the intensity of the third shinobi war, that had managed to convince Shinno to convert the Village Hidden in The Skies into a clan rather and join what was on it's way to becoming the Kirigakure empire. Naruto had presented his whole plan to the man and how he and his new clan would fit into it, including the benfits that they would reap from joining and the man had eventually agreed to join the cause, as his village was facing extintion as it were.

Another powerful person they were introduced to was Miroku, the former Demon Priestess, a blonde haired and voluptous woman with magenta eyes, long hair reaching just above her sizeable but firm posterior and an hourglass figure with a bust that was almost threatening to spill out of her kimomo and expose itself to the world. She was wearing a golden kimomo with a purple sash and brown shinobi sandals, holding herself with an air of authority, intergrity, and elegance despite her sexually stimulating appearance.

According to Naruto, he had helped her to permanently seal away a powerful demon known as Moryou, and all the other lower ranked demons that roamed the lands of Demon Country causing havoc and destruction. And thus, an agreement was settled between the two of them, by agreement meaning a marriage contract to gain a solid alliance with the priestess and to utilize her powers for Kiri. She and her people would be joining the Kiri Empire and they would move into Kirigakure no Sato along with the Sora clan as soon as Yagura was toppled and Naruto took over.

Naruto didn't lie to them, but he did leave out a few important details. The marriage contract between him and Miroku wasn't just that, as a priestess, Miroku sometimes had random visions of the future and the past that were triggered by a array of different circumstances, basically, she knew who Naruto was and she knew that he was from a different time and space. She also knew what kind of person he really was and what he had done for her daughter and by extension, her, in that timeline. In order for her to keep that secret, she had one condition for Naruto, to marry her and become the loving and carrying husband that she wanted him to be. Basically, she blackmailed him into the marriage alliance, although, she didn't have any sinister agenda to begin with. Naruto didn't mind though, getting married to her meant that he would have acccess to her and her powers at any and all times, that could only be a good thing for him and Kirigakure. Also, it meant that he could keep her close enough to physically make sure that she didn't tell anyone about his secret, and considering that one of her demands were that he help her conceive a new priestess, she would be eternally bound and connected to him. His enemies would be her's and their child's enemies, and her enemies would be his and their child's enemies, his secret would thus be safe as revealing that information would only mean endangering herself and their child.

The next person they had met was Soifon of the Seishin clan, a beautiful, relatively short and petite woman with grey eyes and short hair with two long braids bound with a white cloth each ending in a large golden ring, wearing black shinobi pants with hite bandages around the ankles and dark blue ninja sandals on the lower half of her body. A sleeveless top that covers only the front of her body is sported on the upper portion of her body, with a white hoari worn on top. She also has a blue weapons pouch on her left thigh and a short sword held horizontally on her lower back.

The clan used to comprise the Demon Priestess's shinobi guard but were banished two centuries ago by Miroku's predecessor because of a deemed betrayal to the priestess. The clan was said to have gone into hiding since then, never showing themselves on the surface again, to the point that some beleaved their very existence to have been a mere myth. But Miroku saw the future in Naruto and knew that hard times were coming, that the very world that they knew of could possibly cease to exist if they didn't do something about it. That was why she had contacted them, using her powers as a priestess to find their location, which was much closer than some might have thought, and reconcile with them.

The clan had been more than willing to reconcile, having waited so long for a chance to redeem themselves. As a show of trust and sincerity, Seishin Soifon, the heiress of the Seishin clan, now head of the clan after her father's death, had even offered herself in order to seal the pact with blood. Miroku wanted to show her own sincerity and trust to the clan, and offered her own husband, Naruto, to Soifon, making Naruto wonder if she hadn't forced him into the marriage just for this moment. In any case, he hadn't been too bothered, this was the shinobi world where people were taught to do whatever it takes to achieve their goals, she would use him, he would use her, that was fine, as long as they made time once in a while to just be themselves and love each other like husband and wife are supposed to.

In any case, the Seishin clan was incredibly powerful. From what Soifon told him, Naruto knew that the Seishin clan's kekkei genkei was superior even to the Uzumaki clan's chakra chain technique. The Seishin clan used the Yin Release together with the Yang Release in order to create powerful kenjutsu weapons from their own life-force and chakra. The yin release was used to seperate a portion of their soul and give it it's own mental energy, in other words, it's own identity, and the yang was used to give breathe life into that energy and to give it it's own physical form in the shape of a sword. Depending on each person's mastery of the kekkei genkei, the sword could have three forms, each more powerful than the other. The first was the basic sword, the second form was known as a **shikai, **and the final transformation was known as a **bankai. **It was said that it could take ten years even for a Seishin clan genius to master the bankai, but Soifon had already done it at the age of 16. Naruto had battled her once, and he had to admit that he would have lost if it weren't for his mastery of space-time ninjutsu, that **shunpo **speed technique was something else and her kenjutsu skills were on par with the seven ninja swordsman.

They also met Hiruko, an elderly man with the appearance of a white haired boy with red eyes, wearing a white oversized, high collared coat that reaches all the way below his knees with black shinobi pants and ninja sandals. Naruto explained that Hiruko was a former Konoha shinobi who ws from the same generation as the Sannin. That the man specialised in the field of science, research, and related kinjutsu, and that the man had created his own Kinjutsu known as the **chimera kinjutsu**. Naruto also told them that the man was as powerful as any of the Sannin and possibly even more powerful. Hiruko wanted vengeance against the sannin, but more importantly, he wanted to show Konoha that he had transcended with his own kinjutsu and become something, or at least, a part of something greater than Konoha.

Naruto didn't find it hard to convince Hiruko to join his cause, and Hiruko didn't really find it hard to decide either. Naruto offered to provide to him access to all the scientific research that was conducted in whirlpool and Kiri, and even offered to create a science and reseach division for him in Kirigakure where he would be allowed to conduct all of his experiments and even be allowed to recruit potential members of his division directly from Kiri's shinobi forces and from even the ninja academy. Naruto also intriduced them to Ichi, Nii, and San, three siblings who were products of Hiruko's chimera experiments and also his loyal subjects.

The last person they met was Furido, a young man with fair skin and long white hair, wearing a long blue coat with black pants and dark blue shinobi sandals, carying only a long staff with two large rings at the top as a weapon. Furido was a former member of the 12 shinobi guardians of Fire Country whose ambition was to destroy Konoha and it's Kage system, as he thought that there couldn't be two kings and that the Kage was undermining the authority of the Feudal Lord. Basically, Furido wanted to unite the people of Fire Country under one King, but Naruto wanted to unite the whole world under one King and thus, and all skirmishes and wars between the shinobi nations. Having heard Naruto's dream and how he planned to achieve it, Furido couldn't help but to express genuine interest in it. He saw a lot of himself in Naruto, their goals and motivations were very similar, just that, Naruto was thinking far bigger than he could have ever even considered. Needless to say, Furido was inspired and wanted nothing more to than to contribute to this mission in anyway that he could, he told himself that it was the least that he could do. It also helped that Naruto had plans for his **dead corpse re-animation jutsu.**

The plan was simple, Naruto was going to create a **Forbidden Arts Division **in Kirgakure, and he wanted Furido to manage this division. The division would be expected to have close ties with the **Healing and Medicine Division **that Seishin Unohana was expected to lead, and also Hiroku's **Science and Research Division. **Furido was also expected to lead the **corpse forces**, which was comprised of all the shinobi, enemy and Kiri allied that had died and whose bodies were retrieveable for Furido to resssurect with his jutsu.

Not only was Furido able to use re-animated corpses to work for his ranks, but he was also allowed to recruit members for his ranks from the main forces and the academy. To top it off, he had three very powerful allies that agreed to join Kiri with him, Fudo, a taijutsu specialist with a powerful kinjutsu that enabled him to use earth release to turn his skin into diamond, making wounding him a daunting task and granting him increased strength. Fuda was also promised a taijutsu school and would be allowed to recruite from the academy. There was also Fuen, an elegant, dark haired woman who specializes in genjutsu, summoning, and space-time ninjutsu. She was promised a space-time ninjutsu branch inside in Furido's forbidden arts department.

Probably, the most surprising discovery from Furido's followers, was Uzumaki Fuka, a very beautiful redhead with blue eyes, plump lips with red lipstick and a voluptous body that most men would die for. Up until that point, Zabuza and Mangetsu had been under the impression that Naruto, Kushina, and her daughter were the only Uzumaki still alive, one can imagine their surprise when they met Fuka.

Unfortunately, Fuka wouldn't be joining Kirigakure any time soon. She was supposed to go on a very important long term mission soon. According to Naruto, Fuka had a kinjutsu that made her immortal, and she'd been alive for more than ninety years despite looking like an eighteen year old. The kinjutsu also gave her the ability to utilize all five nature transformations as if they were your main affinity, and she had mastered all of them. Zabuza thought that such a jutsu seemed to good to be true, and that there should and must be some kind of drawback, or drawbacks to it. And while he didn't know it for sure, he was right. Fuka had to steal people's souls in order to maintain her youth through her kiss of death technique, the stealing of a soul also transferred the victim's chakra to her, allowing her to use whatever nature transformation that person had for a limited period of time, usually about five years. She also had a weakness in that the life force of the people whose souls she stole was stored in her hair, therefore, her life-span would shorten if someone damaged her hair and she would die if it was completely destroyed.

The long term mission she was embarking on was probably one of the most important missions in the Kiri Empire that Naruto was creating. She was required to make contact with Orochimaru and try to get close to him. Orochimaru was gathering forces for a new shinobi village that he was building, and Naruto wanted to intergrate that village into the Kiri Empire. It would be easy for Fuka to ignite Orochimaru's interest, Orochimaru was obsessed with immortality and learning all the jutsu in the world. He wouldn't pass up the chance to work with someone who was immortal and had mastery of all the five basic nature transformations. Fuka was not only required to collect as much knowledge and information as she could from Orochimaru, but was also expected to form close bonds with the Oto shinobi and earn their trust, she would one day receive an order to elimanate Orochimaru and take over Otogakure no Sato. And on that day, Oto would officially become a branch of the Kiri Empire.

Zabuza thought it was a good plan and wanted to know what other targets Naruto had. Naruto explained that he wanted to use the Uzumaki clan's power to untite the nations, and that all he would use the members of the Uzumaki clan in other villages to do this. He explained that using family would eliminate trust issues between the various branches of the Kiri empire.

Naruto wanted to use Kushina to gain control of Konoha, but expressed his concern that the plan could fail as it were. Kushina was powerful yes, Kage level easily, but the yellow flash was still alive and it would be hard to reach her without his interferance. Also, Kushina now had a family with this man and many friends there already, she wasn't quite as isolated as the other Uzumaki's were, in other words, her need to belong to something greater than herself, or her need to belong to a family was not as strong as she already felt like she had exactly that with Minato, her daughter, and her friends in Konoha. Naruto explained that he would have to wait and see what happened in the future, maybe things would change.

There were other Uzumaki's of course, but Zabuza had assumed by the way Naruto spoke of Kushina that she was his only option he had and left it there, concluding that Naruto would figure out a plan somehow. That was just as well for Naruto, he certainly didn't want to share his plans for Uzumaki Tayuya and Uzumaki Karin, both of Kusa, mainly because they were only little babies at that point in time. He certainly didn't want to say anything about Nagato of Amegakure, that would just cause too many questions that he wouldn't be able to answer, didn't want to answer rather.

"It is my job as the Mizukage to strive for the best for Kiri, but thank you anyway, I'm glad you agree with what I have done...and what I plan to do." Naruto replied.

"Speaking of plans to do, why did we leave Kisame behind?" asked Zabuza with narrowed eyes.

"I thought I told you, I have a mission for Hiruko, Kisame's participation is required for the success of the mission." explained Naruto.

"Oh yeah, and what is it that Kisame can do that we couldn't have done on this so called mission?" asked Mangetsu, eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"It's not something that you can't do, it's something that I don't want you to do."

"But you want him to do it? What is this thing that you want him to do exactly?" asked Zabuza, unnerved by the strange vibe coming from the blonde Uzumaki.

"I want him to die, he is a traitor..."

**End Chapter**

**Hatake Kakashi vs Zetsu and Hiruko vs Kisame have been postponed to the next chapter.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or any other series that I might use for inspiration.

_**The Kage Summit**_

**Six Months Later: Forests Of Wave Country...**

"Have you made reservations with the ferryman, Kakashi Taicho?" Uzuki Yugao asked in mid air, she and her comrades in the four man cell tree hopping through the forests of wave country at a modest speed as there was no need for haste in their return from their mission, the team having completed their mission earlier than expected.

Yugao is a beautiful, slender woman with all the curves in the right places, with dark blue/purple hair that reaches all the way to her mid-back, dark eyes and a soft skin, wearing tight fitting ninja pants with white bandages around the ankles, blue shinobi sandals, a green jonin vest with a black, long sleeved and tight fitting shirt underneath.

"I sent Pakun ahead to inform him of our change of schedule, if that's what you mean." Kakashi replied evenly.

Kakashi is a fifteen year old young man with gravity defying, spiky silver hair and only one visible, dark eye, the other covered up by the matal plate of a forehead protector worn sideways across head and part of his face, completely covering the sharingan eye that was hidden from plane site. He is wearing an outfit that matches Yugao's perfectly, except that he was wearing the male version of the outfit, in other words, his version was loose and not so constricting, with metal plated gloves on his hands.

"I was also worried about that, nice, quick thinking as always, Kakashi-taicho." Genma said with a small smirk.

"This is nothing compared to his exploits on the battle field though, I would have died last night if it wasn't for him. He really is an accomplished shinobi." Hayate said matter of factly, a hint of gratitude and aprreciation leaking into his otherwise dull tone.

"You give me too much credit, you guys have saved my butt on many occassions too. I could not have done it all by myself, that's why we work in a four man cell." Kakashi said dismissively.

"I think we should add modesty in his list of accomplishments." Yugao said with a small smirk.

"Maa maa you guys shoudn't...look out!" Kakashi exclaimed with a panic, just in time too as a great many gigantic roots sprung forth from the ground and trees below them in kind, aimed directly at the heart of their four man cell.

The roots were so thick, so long and they were spreading so fast around that the crew had no choice but to split up in order to avoid either getting impaled or simply caught and crushed between the roots. Being elite jonins themselves, the four were all very quick to deduce that their split up was the intended effect from whoever was attacking them, but they could do nothing about it as more and more roots, all getting bigger and bigger continued to assault them relentlessly, forcing all them even further away from each other. By the time the roots relented on their attack, the individual member of the team were already too far apart from each other to regroup, the group of elites each realising that they would have to deal with their own individual opponents first before regrouping, as there was no other possible reason for seperating them either than that they were being forced to fight an army of white plant men.

_**'I can't believe I was unable to catch even one of them with that attack, they're more skilled than I gave them credit for, but than again, it's harder to focus on so many targets at the same time, especially when they are so far apart from each other.' **_Kurozetsu thought.

_'Don't worry, my clone spores will take care of them.' _Shirozetsu retorted with a mental smirk.

_**'I should hope so, in any case, let's get this over with quickly, I don't want to waste any time on this.' **_Kurozetsu thought as he rose up from the ground a short but safe distance away from the copy ninja.

**"Hatake Kakashi, **it's time for you to die."Zetsu said matter of factly.

"Who are you...and what are you?" Kakashi asked with a horrified expression, unable to quite believe what he was witnessing before his very own eyes. It looked like some kind of plant that turned into a human, or a human that turned into a plant, and most horrifically, whatever it was, it seemed to be made of two people that were fused together into one being, the other black with a deep voice, and the other white with a lighter and softer voice. But that was not quite as weird as the fact that they seemed to even speak as if they were one person despite the clearly different voices coming from...whatever he or it, or they were. Another weird feature that Kakashi had not seen, and doubted that he would ever see on anyone else again was the venus flytrap that was encompassing most of the guy's body, but that was not all, he was wearing a weird outfit two, a long black cloak with red clouds all over it. Kakashi was sure that this outfit must have had some kind of significance to the guy, maybe it was some kind of uniform that whatever clan or organisation he came from used to associate with each other.

**"**My name is Zetsu**, the last person you will ever meet again." **Zetsu replied with a dark undertone, a tone perhaps amplified by his deep, dark and wretching voice.

"We'll see about that." Kakashi said with an intense glare, the copy ninja pushing up his forehead protector to reveal his three tamoe sharingan as he prepared himself for battle, realising that he now had no choice but to forget about the guy's weird appearance and focus on surviving whatever was about to happen.

"The sharingan from the get go huh? **It seems you won't be underestimating your opponent today. **A wise decision on your part, **Hatake Kakashi." **Zetsu said.

"If you're here to get revenge for your deceased comrades, you've come to the wrong place. The only thing you will find here is death...and by death, I mean your death." Kakashi said with a murderous glare.

"You're wrong about two things, Hatake Kakashi. **One, I'm not here for revenge, **nor do I belong to the Nokizaru troops that you and your friends demolished last night**. And two, I'm not the one that's going to die today, the person that is going to die...**is you and your dear friends." Zetsu said without a shadow of a doubt.

_'Impossible, there's no way he would know about last night unless he was physically there himself. But how is that possible? Yugao is a sensor type and I had Pakun and the other ninken patroling around the perimetre during the battle. There's no way we should have missed him.' _Kakashi thought with a confused frown.

_'But than again, no one was able to detect his presence until he started attacking us with his Mokuton-like abilities. Speaking of which, how is this guy pulling a Mokuton technique off in the first place, just what is he exactly?' _Kakashi pondered wearily.

"Maa this guy is boring, just look it him, he's zoning out on us." Shirozetsu said in exasperation.

**"Maybe he's trying to figure something out, in any case, it does not matter in the slightest, if he isn't going to take us seriously than all the better for us." **Kuzozetsu said nonchalantly, the duo knocking the copy nin out of his trance-like state with their words.

"I don't know how you're using Wood Style Ninjutsu, or what you're really after, but that doesn't matter at the moment. You're not the real deal, just a bastardized immitation of the Shodaime Hokage. I'll capture you and extract all the information I need out of you." Kakashi said with conviction as the tamoe on his left eye started spinning around rapidly.

_'He's going to use a genjutsu, __**hehehe, idiot still hasn't detected my sporulation technique, **__using chakra will only speed up the process.' _Zetsu thought triumphantly.

_'I've made eye contact, now's my chance!' _Kakashi thought, using his impressive speed to spring at the plant man and at the same time activating the raikiri on his right hand to try and stab through the Akatsuki member's chest.

However, Zetsu would have none of that, the plant man grabbing hold of the copy nin's wrist at the last possible moment and than delivering a crushing blow to his abdomen with his free hand before kicking him away violently. The copy nin was surprised by the power behind the kick and had no time to right himself before crashing into a tree with a resounding sound as the tree was sent tumbling by the crushing blow the dazed copy nin's body delivered to it.

Kakashi found himself having to use his ultimate attack sooner than he thought, except that this time it was for defense rather than offense, the cycloptic ninja using the lightning blade current throughout his body to cut off the roots that had quickly grown from the felled tree and wrapped themselves around his body.

"Taijutsu is not a strong forte of mine, **but I bet I caught you off guard there didn't I, Hatake Kakashi?" **Zetsu said with a cocky smirk on his white half, the black half remaining expressionless as usual, although the mirth could be detected in his voice if one listened carefully.

_'How is this possible? I made direct eye contact with him before attacking, I was sure I had captured him in a sharingan genjutsu!' _a confused Kakashi thought.

"I bet you're asking yourself? What happened? I caught him in a sharingan genjutsu and immediately attacked with my top speed? No one should have been able to dis-able such a powerful sharingan based genjutsu that fast, right?" Shirozetsu asked in a poor immitation of the copy nin's voice.

"..."

**"Well it's actually simple. When one can't break out of a genjutsu on their own, the duty falls upon his partner to channel his chakra into his comrade's body and disrupt his comrade's chakra circulation. Hatake Kakashi, our bodies and chakra circulatory systems are currently interlocked with each other, as long as we stick together, no genjutsu will ever have an effect on us." **Kurozetsu said confidently.

"That makes sense in a strange, twisted kind of way. But no matter, I'll just have to forcefully seperate the two of you." Kakashi proclaimed, left hand on right wrist as he activated the raikiri again.

_'If he's using Mokuton, than that means he probably has accesss to earth style and water style. Fire style won't work on his water style and my water style will be cancelled out by his water style too. Earth style won't work, he'll just cancel it out with his own earth style and if I try to attack from underground, I might get caught by his mokuton , lightning style is the only advantage that I have against this guy." _Kakashi thought.

"Another raikiri? **You don't really think that we'll allow you to get that close to us do you? **Because that would be stupid."Zetsu said nonchalantly.

_'Just as I thought, he's a long range fighter. Not only that, but he seems to prefer to move as little as possible when he does battle, almost like he's rooted to one spot. I suppose that has something to do with his preference to use roots in battle.' _Kakashi thought analytically.

_'He's confident that he can keep me from getting close to him again, because the last time I got close was only because he allowed me to so that he can surprise me. Every move of his is calculated, he's clearly a smart guy, but I have a surprise of my own.' _Kakashi thought, quickly cooking up a surprise attack for the overconfident plant man as he cancelled the raikiri he was preparing and blazed through another quick set of hand seals.

**"Lightening Release: Beast Running Technique...**what...!" Kakashi trailed off in surprise as a white zetsu spore grew rapidly all around his body, incasing him almost completely with the exception of his head and legs.

The copy ninja tried to use the lightning blade current in order to rip apart the clone spore that was restraining his movements. But that idea went out of the window as soon as he tried to activate the jutsu, the spore zetsu absorbing all of the cycloptic ninja's chakra before he could successfully utilize the modified version of his prized technique.

_'My chakra...? My chakra reserves just took a nose dive, this guy...he must have absorbed my chakra! This guy is an unparalelled jutsu user, when did he even set up this jutsu?' _Kakashi thought frantically. It was also at this moment that Zetsu, almost as if reading the copy ninja's thoughts, shed light on the copy nin's mental dilemma.

**"That is my sporulation no jutsu, in case you were wondering. **I managed to set it up on you and your comrades in kind before you were seperated from each other. **The spore itself and the extent of it's restraining and chakra draining become stronger the longer it remains dormant. **The more chakra you expand, the greater it's power to absorb and restrain becomes. **Hatake Kakashi, since our battle began, you have used one powerful sharingan illusion and activated the raikiri at least three times, how powerful do you think is that spore now...?." **Zetsu trailed off with a sinister undertone.

_'So basically, this is a glutonous clone. The more you feed it with chakra, the more it wants to eat and the stronger it becomes. If I hadn't prepared a contingency plan, it would have been over for me now.' _Kakashi thought with a mental sigh of relief.

"You're a skilled shinobi, I'll give you that, however..." Kakashi trailed off as a shadow clone came running at blinding speeds from behind a tree that was situated a few metres behind Zetsu, the clone running with a lightning blade in hand at barely readable speeds, intent to kill clearly written all over it's face.

_'It's over...' _Kakashi thought confidently. However, what transpired next was something that Kakashi couldn't quite fathom, watching with wide eyes as his clone somewhat comically tripped and fell flat on it's face.

_'That's not possible! My clone has been watching the whole time, he should have been aware of the possibility of being intercepted by protuding roots...wait, what's that!' _Kakashi thought with a look of both shock and realization, the copy nin spotting a white hand protruding from under the ground and holding tightly on his clone's ankle. The shadow clone however was quick to respond, quickly thrusting it's lightening enhanced hand into the area where the hand was protruding from, causing a crater to form on the area, around the now deceased body of a Zetsu wood clone, the shadow clone stabbing it's raikiri right through the white guy's left eyeball and into his brain.

"Nice work, now hurry up and free me!" Kakashi ordered authoratively.

"I guess it can't be helped." The clone responded with Kakashi's usual aloof manner as it pulled it's hand out of the deceased wood clone, which had indeed now turned into a disfigured mass of wood, the clone adopting a battle ready stance as it prepared to jump into action.

_'That's a wood clone. This guy really is a mokuton user. I wouldn't go as far as saying he's on the Shodaime's level, but he's very accomplished in his field, probably the most dangerous guy I've ever faced on my own.' _Kakashi thought wearily.

"Boss, what the hell is happening?" The clone asked with a confused expression.

"What do you mean? Just hurry up and release me!" Kakashi exclaimed anxiously.

"But...he's not even facing me, don't you think that's a little strange?" The clone asked suspiciously.

"Hehehehehe! What's wrong, Hatake Kakashi, **does my back intimidate you?" **Zetsu asked with a condensending tone, facing the restrained original and yet directing his words to both the original and the clone.

_'He's right, this is suspicious, one would think that his sole priority now would be to deal with the clone and than finish me off, or just use me as bait to lure my clone into a trap. If he attacks me and kills me, than the clone also dies, and if the clone stops him from killing me, than it falls for his trap regardless and he finishes both of us off. This is too weird, I can't figure out what he's up to. I'm in way over my head here, I need to free myself and escape, there's no way that I can win.' _Kakashi thought logically and somewhat fearfully.

"Listen up, you have to use that jutsu, it's the only way!" Kakashi exclaimed.

"Okay, that should be able to take him out if I connect..."

"No!" Kakashi exclaimed again, cutting out the clone before he could say anything more.

"What..."

"I want you to aim the jutsu at me..." Kakashi said with a signal with his eyes, indicating to the clone that it should aim on freeing him rather than to kill Zetsu.

_'I see. The original me is right, if I aim at Zetsu, there's no guarantee that I'll even hit him at my current level of mastery over this jutsu, it's not like he'll just sit still and allow me to aim. Furthermore, even if I hit him, right now I'm not even sure if this is even the real him. This guy is smart and he has been planning this attack for a while, he probably wants me to think that he is underestimating me. I should free the boss and hope that he can make it through this.' _Clone Kakashi thought wearily.

_'Aim the jutsu at him instead of us? What does that mean exactly?' _A confused white Zetsu thought.

_**'He's going to try and free the original, hurry up and execute that plan, quickly!' **_Black Zetsu ordered.

_'I'll run out of chakra and get dispelled if I use this jutsu, I don't have a choice but to make it count.' _The clone thought as the tamoe in his eyes spinned around rapidly before stopping suddenly, the tamoe connecting to form a tri-pronged shuriken. The clone was just about to activate the special technique when a woman that he recognized all too well appeared on zetsu's left hand side with her sword drawn and aimed for the underside of the plant man's left ribs, aiming to pierce her way straight through and all the way to the heart. However, she was unable to make it as a gigantic and rapidly growing root intercepted her, the root branching out rapidly as many smaller ones grew from it and tried to stab through her body. She was quickly forced to retreat as she jumped next to the copy ninja, but not before leaving a few explosive notes around the Akatsuki member.

The explosive notes exploded with a loud bang, sending debris and dust flying around the battle ground. The purple haired kunoichi used the explosive distraction to her advantage, quickly running around and making her way to the original copy cat at impressive speed before proceeding to slice up the defenseless sporulation zetsu, grab onto the chakra exhausted copy ninja, and make her way to a safe distance.

When the dust and debris cleared, Yugao was visibly disappointed to see that her explosive tag attack hadn't so much as fazed the Akatsuki member, the plant man not sustaining any damage of any sort as his mokuton ninjutsu once again protected him, the multitude of thick roots that were surounding shielding him sustaining a fare amount of damage to protect him from the same fate.

"Kakashi, are you okay?" Yugao asked with concern, helping the clearly exhausted copy ninja to balance on her shoulder.

"I'll be okay. Thanks for the rescue, Yugao, I owe you one." Kakashi replied with an eye smile.

"Okay, but if this guy could do this to you, than he must be really strong. And you're about to suffer from severe chakra exhaustion, you need to dispell your shadow clone to regain some of your chakra." Yugao said hastily.

"You're right, and I'll end it shortly after that." Kakashi said with determination, his shadow clone disappearing in a puff of smoke as he moved a little in front of Yugao protectively, and also to hide his mangyeko sharingan from her, which was now activated thanks to his shadow clone.

"Yugao, I've got a jutsu that can end this battle instantly, we simply can't afford to drag this out against someone like him. However, my chakra and body will suffer from the side effects, I'm going to need you to take care of my body when this is done and over with, consider it an order." Kakashi said with a grave undertone.

_'That eye...! It looks just like Tobi's!' _Shirozetsu thought with wide eyes.

_**'It's hard to believe, but there's no doubting it, Hatake Kakashi has the mangyeko sharingan, and he's about to use the long range version of Tobi's kamui.' **_Kurozetsu replied mentally.

_'How do you know that there's a long range version?' _the white half pondered.

_**'Tobi has alway voiced his frustrations at the fact that he always has to be within touching distance of his opponents in order to effectively use his kamui. I always figured that the other eye would undoubtedly have been the solution to that that niggling problem. Up until now it has always been a theory, but Hatake Kakashi knows that we'll never allow him to get close to us, it is likely that my theory is true. Nevertheless, we don't want to find out if I'm right or wrong, we can always do that later when Tobi uses the eye.' **_Black Zetsu replied.

_'So you want me to use that now?' _

_**'That should be obvious, hurry up and kill him!' **_Kurozetsu snapped angrily.

"Okay, I'll take care of you, Kakashi-taicho, I promise." Yugao replied with a sinister smirk.

"Thanks, Yug...gwaaaah!" Kakashi never got to finish what he wanted to say as Yugao stabbed her sword right through his heart.

"I'm sorry Kakashi, but I can't allow you to use that technique ." Yugao said with a malicious smile.

"Y-Yugao...w-why?" Kakashi asked between a blood curdling coughing fit, looking over his shoulder at the purple haired beauty with eyes full of surprise and betrayal.

"Because...I can't allow you to kill me, Kakashi-san." Yugao said as she transformed back into a white skinned male mid-sentence, her voice contorting as well into that of a male, namely, white zetsu's voice.

"Y-you...!"

"Yes...me...!" Zetsu said, quickly pulling out the sword from the copy nin's back and swiftly moving to decapitate him from the neck.

"How...?" Kakashi didn't get his answer nor did he get to even ask his question really as his head was sent flying away from his body. Zetsu ignored the body and moved towards the head, kicking it like a soccer ball towards the the dual personalized original.

"It's done." The clone said confidently.

"Yes...**yes it is." **The original replied.

"You have a nasty habit of playing too much with your prey, Zetsu, it will be the end of you one day." A dark and sinister voice sounded as a space time vortex opened up in the space between the the clone zetsu and the original. The vortex disappearing and leaving behind an orange masked man wearing the same Akatsuki uniform as Zetsu.

"What good is a hunt if you're not going to enjoy the game.** Besides, I always scout out my opponents before I engage in battle. **Hatake Kakashi was dancing on the palm of my hand from the beginning,** I got the job done didn't I?" **Zetsu asked retorically.

"You won't always have preparation time..."

**"And I won't always play with my prey. Your concern is appreciated, but I can handle myself." **Black Zetsu retorted hastily.

"..."

"I um...I will take your advice under careful consideration. But right now, we should focus on getting this eye back where it belongs." Zetsu said, grabbing Kakashi's head by the hair and twisting it around for Obito to see the horrified expression on the head.

If Obito was disturbed by the sight of his former best friend's decapitated head, than he did very well not to show it. Of course, the mask did a good job at helping him hide his emotions too, but there were other ways for a shinobi to spot emotions from someone, and Zetsu was quite an expert at it. However, even Obito's body language didn't show anything whatsoever, and that surprised Zetsu a little.

"Very good, you did well, Zetsu. This mission will go a long way to helping us win our war against Naruto, Minato-sensei, and the elemental nations. However, I'm curious about our other objective, how did that one pan out?" Obito asked curiously.

"She's right here..." another voice called out, one exactly the same as the white half of the original zetsu, another white clone growing out of the ground with a purple haired woman carried on his shoulder.

"You're not wearing any clothes, and you're carrying an unconscious woman on your back. Do you have any idea what that looks like?" Obito asked jokingly.

"Hahaha! Well it can't be helped can it?" the clone laughed sheepishly.

"I suppose not. Anyway, what did you find out?" Tobi asked, now adopting a serious and somewhat anxious tone.

"Madara-sama was right about Tobirama Senju. He may have never been married, but he did secretly sire two branches of his bloodline, with a woman from the respected Namikaze family and a woman from the Uzuki family. Just like Madara-sama said, the second hokage had a militant and realistic view of the world, he foresore the demise of the senju clan and sort to ensure it's future through these shinobi families." the Zetsu clone said with a little admiration for the great Nidaime Hokage.

"So you're sure, she really is a senju?" Tobi asked, not skeptically, but just to re-affirm in his mind that what Zetsu said was indeed reality.

"Her chakra is consistent with the quality of the senju, but not only that, fate seems to have taken a liking to us, she has a strong water affinity and a you'll never guess what the secondary affinity she has developed is." the clone Zetsu said with a cocky smirk..

"She has an earth affinity?" Tobi asked curiously, his lone visisble eye widening slightly in surprise and a little excitement.

"You bet! This will increase the chances of the experiment's success won't it?" the clone asked excitedly.

"Yes, yes it will..." Tobi trailed off in slight disbelief, unable to believe just how everything seemed to fall into place all of a sudden.

**"Still, even if the experiment worked, there is still a chance that she won't sympathise with our plans, what do we do if that happens?" **Black Zetsu asked wearily.

"Hatred is not the only way to control and manipulate someone, in fact, more often than not, love does that job just as effectively, if not more so." Obito replied cryptically.

**"Love? **Are you planning to seduce her?" clone Zetsu asked skeptically.

"No offense Tobi, but I just don't think that is quite your forte, especially with the mask thing you have going on, and I won't even mention the scars on your face. Although, I once heard that some girls like the dark and mysterious type? Hmmm...I hope she's one of those, your seduction might work if she's really that type." the original Zetsu said with a thoughtful expression.

"There won't be any need to seduce her, she's already in love with me. She was always jealous of the attention that I gave to Rin instead of her, and she persued my affections vigorously at the time. I've seen her crying over my grave at the Konoha memorial stone a couple of times. It won't be hard to get her to be on our side. However, perhaps we should wait a while before synchronizing Hashirama's living clone into her, it might not sit well with her if we fiddle with her body without her permission." Tobi explained with a flicker of nostalgia.

_'Finally! I'll be able to attain my true power soon, a power exceeding even Madara-sensei. Zetsu's military power will be enhanced when we capture the tailed beasts and I'll have Hashirama's power in Uzuki, or rather, Senju Yugao. I also have Madara-sensei's rinnegan in Nagato and the Gedo Mazo will be under my control soon. All I need now is to expand on the Akatsuki, there's a lot of talent out there, but maybe I should let Zetsu and Nagato deal with that while I handle the issue with the Uchiha-clan. Hehehe! Things are finally looking up for us...'_

"Tobi...Tobi...Tobi!" Zetsu called out loudly, effectively cutting the masked enigma off from his wondering thoughts.

"Yes, what is it, Zetsu?" Tobi asked curiously.

"Should we not go now?" Zetsu asked retorically.

"Yes, let's hurry, I'm itching to get reunited with my eye." Tobi said with a dark undertone.

**Three years Later: Kirigakure no Sato...**

_**Knock knock knock**_

"You may enter." Naruto said quietly yet loud enough for the person on the other side of the door to hear.

The sixteen year old Kage had grown quite a lot in the last three years, both physically and mentally. He was quite tall too, now nearly six feet tall with an astonishingly toned and muscular frame, wearing only a black tight fitting but sleeveless top with a dark blue hoari with waves of water licking the bottom of his cloak, black shinobi pants, white leg-warmers and black shinobi sandals. A Kiri forehead protector can be found wrapped around his head with the metal plate protecting the forehead like its supposed to be.

"You called for me, Mizukage?" asked Terumi Mei with more than a little distaste in her tone as she barged into the office.

She is a voluptous woman of angelic beauty with ankle-length auburm hair styled in a herringbone pattern also with a top knot tied by a blue band, with two bangs crossing right above her cleavage and one completely covering her right eye. She has green eyes, ruby red lipstick and is wearing a long-sleeved dark blue dress that falls below her knees, closed at the front with a zip and kept open on the front right side from the waist down, covering up only up to the upper parts of her arms and underside of her sizeable breasts. She also has a mesh-shirt underneath that covers more of her upper body than her dress but stopping short of covering her shoulders, leaving her sizeable cleavage on display. She is also wearing a belt around her waist with a pouch attached to the left side of her back, high heeled sandals and shin guards reaching up to her knees.

Her distaste, while some of it was directed at the Fifth Mizukage, Naruto, was not entirely directed at him. Some of it, and indeed most of it was directed at Naruto's 'left' hand man, literally always found standing on Naruto's left hand side, the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura, a short young man with light-grey hair, pupil-less eyes and a stitch-like scar running from under his left eye all the way down his cheek, wearing a grey shirt with the Kirigakure forehead protector attached to the front, a short sleeved mesh armour over which he is also wearing a poncho along with a tarquoise sash around his waist, paired with a green apron over his pants. Yagura was also wearing a pair of brown boots, carrying a staff-like pole weapon on his back with uneven hooks with a green flower on the larger of the hooks.

"That's Mizukage-sama to you, Mei!" said Zabuza, who was standing on the seated Mizukage's right hand side, with a dangerous undertone.

"Piss of Zabuza! Who asked for your opinion anyway?" Mei rebuked with equal intensity.

"You bitch...!"

"Mei-san, you were once leader of the rebellion forces, how would you have felt if one of your subordinates treated you the way you treat Godaime-sama? Surely you understand what kind of position you're subjecting him to. Also, Godaime-sama is trying his best to reunite the nation and make amends for his predecessors' mistakes, if an idolised figure like you can't share that same vision, what kind of influence do you think your behaviour will have on the next generation, huh, Mei-san?" Yagura asked with his regular soft spoken voice, cutting off the demon Zabuza before he could succumb to his homocidal instincts.

"I...I d-don't have to listen to a lecture from a bastard like you! What makes you think you have any right to talk about unity and peace after what you did!" the eighteen year old Mei retaliated somewhat obnoxiously.

"Mei! You know he wasn't in control of himself when that happened, it wasn't his doing, it was Uchiha Obito who destroyed Kiri! You know this better than anyone else out there!" Zabuza shouted angrily, not knowing how long he could stop himself from assaulting this, according to him, unreasonable and childish woman.

"So what! Am I supposed to feel sorry for him? He was the Mizukage for kami-sama's sake, how could he have such a weak will as to be controlled like that. If he really loved Kiri, if he really was deserving of the Mizukage title, than his love for our nation alone should have been enough to break out of such a foul genjutsu! He's just a weak willed pathetic excuse of a kage, he doesn't deserve to live. I'll never trust him again, **never!**" Mei exclaimed with unwavering hate and resent for the boy looking Yondaime.

"Mei..."

"No shut up I don't want to hear your hypocrisy Zabuza! You're no different from him! You weren't even an academy student but you went and killed a whole class of graduates just for the heck of it, or maybe just for some sick ego trip to get yourself a reputation. You even take pride in that demon monicker that you got because of that incident, heck, you even brag about it to comrades and enemies alike, brag about killing all those Kiri children and destroying their futures! You make me sick!" Mei exclaimed, her breath a little raggard from her passionate tirade. To be honest, she'd wanted to say this for a long time now and they had just given her that ample opportunity by passing judgement on her, Mei had no intention of passing up such an opportunity, to her, it was about time all these pompous hypocrites were put in their place.

"Zabuza, you have no right to pass judgement on me, or any one else from Kiri for that matter. You didn't lose anything when Yagura was tearing down Kirigakure no Sato. You were alone from the start, you had no family, no real friends, nothing! I and countless others lost our brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, cousins and friends. Some people even lost wives and husbands, you didn't lose anything. So don't you dare talk down to me again! If you do...I'll kill you! The same goes to you, Yagura, you spineless wimp!" Mei ended the rant with a threatening tone, a tone that left no reasonable doubt that she meant exactly what she was saying.

"..."

"..."

Neither Zabuza or Yagura had anything to say after that rant by the former leader of the rebellion forces, after all, what could they say? The way she worded it, it really did seem like they were guilty of some gross hypocrisy, everything she said seemed to fit together and even made a too much sense for them to effectively dispute. All they could do was to hold their mouths shut and bow their heads in shame, nothing less, and nothing more. An apology would probably send her off on another tirade or just plain piss her off enough for her to attack them.

"Mei, I understand where you're coming from, and I have no way of disputing your words nor do I have a reason to judge you. But remember, you're not the only one that suffered from Obito's regime, in fact, in a way, it could even be said that Yagura is the one who has suffered the most. Everyone has lost faith in him, everyone hates him, everyone outright curses him or whisper foul words behind his back when they think he can't hear them. Some people even refuse to serve him in their shops and restaurants. Kids and adults alike throw rotten foods and stones at him when he walks by, if they don't, they simply pretend he is not there and completely ignore his very existence. No one believes in him, no one forgives him, no one tries to understand him, and no one cares about him. Can you even begin to farthom what kind of burden Yagura has had to carry over the past couple of years?" Naruto asked retorically.

"I...I...well.."

"Yet, Mei, Yagura has not once retaliated or even shown any hatred to the people that treat him worse than a hell spawn. He continues to be kind and caring to others. He tries his best to help everyone when he can and he continues to work diligently and ethically for a greater and peaceful future for Kiri. He continues to love Kiri and everyone in it and works hard in hopes of one day atoning for his sins, even though it was not his doing in the first place. Mei, Yagura has chosen to carry this burden so that Kiri can be united. I don't like the concept, nor do I like to think like this, but the fact of the matter is that Kiri was able to unite so soundly and so quickly because of their shared hate for Yondaime-sama. Did you know, that Yagura planned this from the start, it is the only reason he decided to carry on living, so that he can unite Kiri through their shared hatred for him. It is not a concept too foreign from the one where people say that the enemy of their enemy is their friend. In such scenarios, people who once hated each other are able to effectively work together and even form bonds in order to defeat a shared and superior enemy, just as Kiri was able to unite in their shared hatred for Yagura." Naruto explained to the utter shock and surprise of Terumi Mei.

She could honestly say that she had never once considered the situation from Yagura's perspective, nor did she know that he was living such a horrible life in Kirigakure. In fact, all this time she'd convinced herself that Yagura had gotten off very easily and the fact that he'd become the current Mizukage's 'left' hand had seemed like a reward to her rather than a punishment for his past sins.

But now, having found out just what kind of life he was living and the real reason that Naruto had spared his life, the real reason Yagura was still alive, well, she didn't know how to feel right now. She wanted to hate him, she wanted to hate Yagura so badly but at the same time she couldn't help but to sympathise with him, she even felt a kind of respect for him. Yagura it seemed had given up on life itself and only lived for Kiri and nothing else, all for the sake of his people and in order to atone for his mistakes. Heck, the guy wasn't even the Sanbi jinchuuriki anymore, she knew that much, Naruto had extracted the Sanbi and sealed it into himself. But through an experimental procedure, Yagura had been kept alive by Seishin Unohana's medical ninjutsu long enough for Naruto to seal some of the Sanbi's chakra into Yagura, turning Yagura into a pseudo sanbi jinchuuriki, whereas Naruto was the true jinchuuriki.

It was a procedure that Naruto had learned about through Furido, of course, not the Furido of this timeline, but the one from his original timeline. Furido's son, Sora, in that timeline had been made into a pseudo kyubi jinchuuriki through a process where the Kyubi's residue chakra was collected, cultivated, and eventually sealed into young Sora. And of course, the only person from this timeline that knew exactly where Naruto got the idea from was the former Demon, now Kiri priestess and Naruto's wife, Uzumaki Miroku.

"Mei, I cannot, no rather, I do not have the right to say that your views about Yagura and Zabuza are right or wrong. It is like you said, I didn't lose anything, or at least, not as much as you and everyone else did during Obito's regime, but, how do we break this cycle of hatred and move on to a better future for ourselves and more importantly, for our loved ones and our people? How do we attain peace for Kiri and her children? How are we to ensure that the mistakes of the past don't ever repeat themselves again? These are the questions we need to ask and answer ouselves on a daily basis as leaders and idols for our people and the up and coming generation. I can't order you to forgive Yagura, nor can I even ask you to forgive him, but at the very least, don't you think we should work together to protect and empower our people, after all, we shinobi are expected to live a life of self-sacrife for the sake of our loved ones." Naruto pleaded with a soft, caring and sage-like tone.

_'H-He's right, my behaviour has been nothing but petulant and self-centred, not to mention disruptive to Naruto-kun's vision for a strong and united Kirigakure. I've been ignorant of everyone else's troubles and sufferings and I have failed to see the bigger picture. I don't really have to like Yagura or forgive him for that matter, I...I just have to put my hatred and resentment aside and focus on helping those who really need my help, I just need to focus on our mission and vision for a better Kiri, I have to do it for our descendants.' _Mei thought with regret.

"Fine, you've made your point. I will take responsibility and do the right thing, but that doesn't mean that I have to like it, and it certainly doesn't make us friends or anything like that. I'm simply doing this for Kiri and her people. Do we understand each other?" Mei challenged, staring down each and every man inside the room without a shred of fear in her eyes, all three men extremely powerful in their own right and capable of ending her life in a shinobi battle, although, it could be said that she was also capable of ending each of their lives in a one on one battle as well.

"That's good enough for me, I'm so glad, I couldn't ask any more of you than that. Thank you, Mei." Naruto said with a small smile, pure joy and excitement clearly visble in his eyes, causing Mei to blush involuntarily.

_'Kuso! Why does he make me feel like this, I hate him!' _Mei thought to herself in frustration.

"Tche, whatever!" Mei said with a snobish attitude, averting her eyes away from the blonde's enticing cerulean orbs to hide her embarrassment.

"Hn, in any case, there was something else I wanted to talk to you about Mei. Zabuza, Yagura, you already know about my plans, you don't have to stick around for this part of the conversation, in fact, I would actually like to have a private conversation with Mei-chan." Naruto said, subtly but at the same time not so subtly dismissing his body guards.

"Alright, but please don't hesitate to call on us if you need anything, Godaime-sama." Yagura humbly requested.

"Don't worry too much my friend, just enjoy yourself for a while, you too, Zabuza-sensei." Naruto said with a wave of the hand, waiting patiently as his two elite guards left the office before resuming his conversation with KIri's fiery godess.

"What was so important that you wanted to talk to me about?" Mei asked impatiently.

"There's a Kage's summit in The Land of Iron in a month's time. A maximum of four body guards per Kage is required, I want you to come with me to the summit as one of my body guards." Naruto requested of the voluptous former rebel leader, causing her eyes to widen slightly in surprise.

"Y-you want me to be one of your guards? But why? Why me?" Mei asked with a confused expression.

"Why not?" Naruto retorted with a raised eyebrow, an amused expression displayed on his facial features.

"You know I hate you right?" Mei asked as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, however, the flash of sadness that passed through the blonde Uzumaki's eyes almost made her want to take back her words, but it was already too late for that as it vanished from his eyes so fast that she doubted it was even there in the first place. Still, she couldn't help but to feel a little guilty, she knew he'd obviously heard her and she had no doubt that she didn't imagine the sadness in his eyes.

_'Tche! Why the hell should I feel guilty, Bastard wasn't even here for me when my family was killed, he was out there travelling the world and getting married to other women while I waited for him like an idiot! He doesn't deserve my sympathy!' _Mei thought stubbornly.

"I know that I'm not one of your favorite people, but remember, you promised that you would put your feelings aside for the sake of the village, I don't expect you to break that promise." Naruto said with a stoic expression, causing Mei to almost flinch at the sudden coldness coming from the man she once thought of as her future husband and love of her life, a man whose guts she now hated with a passion, or so she told herself.

"Don't you dare insult my intergrity! Remember, you're the one that couldn't keep your dick inside your pants." Mei retorted rudely, causing the blonde Uzumaki to release an audible sigh at the red haired beauty's persistent, albeit justified rudeness.

"Okay, I guess I deserve that. You're right, I have no right to lecture you about promises, not especially after breaking one of the most sacred promises that I made to you. I sacrificed what we had together in order to secure Kiri's future, to secure powerful allies that would help us stand at the top of the shinobi world once again. It's okay, you can throw all of your hate at me, I will carry that burden for the rest of my existence if I have to, as long as you're safe, as long as you can have a chance at a happy and peacful life, it is worth it..."Naruto trailed off with unwavering conviction.

"I love you, Mei, no matter how much you hate me, I will always care about you. I am married to two wonderful and powerful women, initially, it was only to secure an alliance, but I have fallen in love with them too. I can't possibly expect you to accept something like that, and I won't ask you to. I just hope that you will find someone who will give you the happiness you deserve." Naruto said with a heavy heart.

"Naruto...you...you bastard!" Mei exclaimed furiously, the red haired beauty quickly and violently removing the obstacle standing between her and the love of her life, grabbing and throwing the Mizukage's desk against the side wall aggressively before slapping the pride out of the Uzumaki's face, a loud and resounding slapping sound echoeing around the Mizukage's office.

To say Naruto was caught off guard and surprised would be a gross understatement, the blonde Uzumaki, one known as the fastest shinobi in Kirigakure with the most insane reflexes ironically unable to react in time as he found himself falling smack on his back along with his chair. However, the blonde didn't even last a second in that position, quickly righting himself and landing on his feet once again in anticipation of a follow up attack.

"M-Mei-chan...what are you...?"

"Shut up! You...you arrogant bastard! I'm sick and tired of this shit! Why can't you just apologise properly, huh! Why can't you go down on your knees and beg for my forgiveness? Do you really think that I'm that short-sighted? Do you really think that I don't understand why you did what you did? That I, as a leader of men, would not be able to comprehend the sacrifices required for the prosperity of our country! You...you fool!" Mei exclaimed furiously, grabbing the blonde Uzumaki by the scruff of the kneck while delivering another powerful slap to the face.

"M-Mei..."

"Shut up! I'm not finished yet!" Mei demanded.

"..."

"All I wanted from you was for you to show a little remorse, a little regret, and give me a proper apology. Instead, all you did was to continue to try and justify yourself with stupid explanations, you didn't even fight to preserve what we had, you just gave up like the cowardly dog that you are!" Mei exclaimed with tears of anger, pain, and sadness falling rapidly from her eyes.

"..." Naruto was too stunned to master a single vowel or consonant for that matter, honestly, he didn't have any idea what he could say now to make things better.

The blonde Uzumaki had just assumed that Mei would never forgive him for betraying her like he did. And even if she did, he didn't think that she would still want a relationship with him considering the fact that he was now married to two women, and even had a three year old daughter with one of them, a daughter who was next in line to become the next priestess of Kiri. All this time, he had tried to put himself in her shoes, and when he thought about it, if Mei had become the Mizukage, and married another man to secure an alliance, he didn't think that he'd be able to continue his relationship with her under those conditions. He would without a doubt end the romantic side of their relationship and settle for just being friends, or maybe even some kind of sibling type of relationship. He just never thought that his ability to empathise with others would prove to be such a double edged sword.

"Well, I can't help that I'm in love with you, and it is because of that love that I can't watch you become a cowardly dog any longer. You will swallow your pride, go down on your knees..." Mei said as she forced the blonde Uzumaki to kneel in front of her with a firm grip on his hair.

"...and poor your heart out to me, you will beg for my forgiveness and tell me exactly how much you love me. You will ask for my hand in marriage like you promised you would on your return, and you will marry me. I won't allow you to break your promise, I love you too much to allow you to become that kind of man." Mei ordered with an air of authority.

_'Kuso...this is so embarrassing. How did I get myself into this! The guys must never find out about this, especially Mangetsu, I would just die if he found out about this!' _Naruto thought regretfully, placing his forehead on the floor as he prepared to 'poor his heart out' to the red haired Terumi clan heiress.

_'I must __**never **__allow myself to be in this position again!' _The blonde jinchuuriki thought with determination and conviction even as he placed his head on the floor in an uncharacteristically submissive position, all for the sake of earning forgiveness from one of the most precious people in his life.

_'The things we do for love...' _Naruto thought before pooring his heart out to the red haired godess.

**Konohagakure no Sato: Uchiha Clan Compound...**

_**Knock knock knock...**_

"Coming!" Uchiha Mikoto exclaimed with forced enthusiasm as she went to open the front the door. She is a beautiful, voluptous woman with long, straight raven hair and dark eyes, wearing a simple but beautiful black dress, a dress hugging her hourglass figure. Opening the door, Mikoto was able to see, just as expected, that the two people on the other side of the door were her former best friend, Uzumaki Kushina, and her husband, Namikaze Minato, two people that, while she didn't really hate, couldn't bring herself to like anymore, they were now, whether they knew it or not, her enemies, her clan's enemies.

"Hello, Kushina, Hokage-sama." Mikoto greeted with a forced smile.

Namikaze Minato was dressed like his usual self, wearing the standard Jonin uniform along with his white coat with flame mortifs licking the bottom edges and the kanji for 'Fourth' on inscribed on the back. Mikoto, looking at his handsome and boyish facial features, couldn't help but wonder once again what could have been. Minato was the man that she once loved the most, but he always had eyes only for her best friend, Kushina, and she, Mikoto, as the clan heiress, was forced into an arranged marriage with, at the time, the strongest Uchiha in the clan, Fugaku. Her life was full of short comings and underachivements, largely due to the existence of her friend, Kushina. Mikoto was positive that she could have forced through an arranged marriage between herself and Minato if it wasn't for the fact that Kushina had married him, at such a young age. The clan would have wanted to attain the Fourth Hokage's kinjutsu and bloodline to strengthen themselves, she was sure of it.

However, things panned out very differently, perhaps for the best. She had two wonderful and talented sons, of which she was sure would one day become powerful enough to overthrow the current Hokage, if not individually, than at least together. There was also Uchiha Shishui, a prodigy not seen in the clan since Uchiha Madara and his brother, Uchiha Izuna. The time would come for the Uchiha clan to reclaim its rightful place, they just had to be patient and deligent about it.

"Mikoto-chan, how are you?" Kushina asked, also with a forced smile. She was wearing blue dress, also hugging her houglass figure with one side seperated in a way that shows her left thigh and allows for better movement, while Mikoto's dress had short sleeves, hers was completely sleeveless with a zipper at the back and her cleevage the only things holding the dress in place.

"I'm fine thank you, and how are you two?" Mikoto asked formerly.

"Hehe, we're just happy to share a dinner with friends, with Minato-kun's job, we barely get a chance to visit our loved ones." Kushina said with a happy smile.

"You should come in, you've been here before, so you can lead yourselves to the dinning room. I'll call Itachi and Sasuke quickly." Mikoto said with cold eyes, causing Kushina to lose the light in her eyes, trying and failing to keep the smile on her facial features, the stab of rejection penetrating her heart painfully, causing Minato to frown with concern. He didn't like to see his Kushi-chan sad, he wasn't a violent person, well, for a shinobi at least, but he always felt like brutally hurting anyone who made his wife feel any kind of pain. However, he would have to contain himself for the evening, he could just imagine what a blow his reputation would take if he assualted the matriah of the Uchiha clan, not to mention the political backlash of such an act.

_'Danzo, Homura, Koharu, Hiruzen, do the four of you have any idea what you've done? A civil war is inevitable now, the three of you have planted the seed of war on healthy soil, it will grow very rapidly, in fact, it has already started blooming.' _Minato thought as he was escorted by his wife to the dinner table, Kushina, having visited Mikoto many times in thier youth, already knowing the house inside out, Mikoto on the other hand making her way to Sasuke and Itachi's room quietly.

**Two Hours Later...**

"So, Hokage-sama, not that we haven't enjoyed your company, but don't you think it is about time you told us the real reason for your visit?" Fugaku asked bluntly, now adopting a serious expression laced with a healthy dose of suspision.

Fugaku is a man with black hair, slightly long hair reaching up to just above his shoulders and black eyes, with manly, stern facial features. Wearing dark blue kimomo with the Uchiha symbol on the back, black ninja pants, and black ninja sandals.

"What makes you think there's a _real reason?_ Our wives are best friends, Kushina-chan wanted to catch up and meet her god sons. Is that such a bad thing?" Minato asked retorically.

"God sons...?" Fugaku trailed off suspiciously,giving his wife a questioning glare with the corner of his right eye.

"We agreed that we would take care of each other's descendants should anything ever happen to either one of us. It was a promise we made to each other as naive teenagers who didn't really know much about the cruelty of the real world." Mikoto explained calmly but brutally, causing even the eight year old Itachi to flinch slightly at his mother's harsh words.

Itachi is boy with black hair tied in a small pony tail behind his back with two bangs falling down the sides of his face, black eyes, and tear-like markings running from his eyes downwards, wearing grey pants, brown sandals, and a black shirt with a turtleneck collar and the Uchiha symbol at the back.

Itachi may have been young, but he was not stupid, far from it actually, after all, even at the age of eight, he had already awakened and mastered a three tamoe sharingan and already earned the title of chuunin. As a result, in terms of intellect, he was far more advanced than his peers. It was easy for him to tell that there was something horribly wrong with regards to relations between the Uchiha clan and the Hokage, and it was easy for him, just like it was for Kushina and Minato, to decipher the subtle meaning behind Mikoto's words. In a way, Mikoto was telling Uzumaki Kushina that they were no longer friends, and that she would not except the responsibilty of becoming Natsumi's godmother, neither was she offering the position to Kushina for Sasuke and Itachi himself. Even the three year old Uchiha Sasuke knew that something was simply not right here, although he didn't have any idea what it could be really. All he knew was that his mother and father were acting strange.

Kushina would have broken down into tears if it wasn't for her shinobi training and the need to keep up appearances. She didn't want to accept it, but it could not have been clearer to her than it was now. Her sibling in everything but blood was disowning her and wanted nothing to do with her. As a jinchuuriki, rejection was a very sensitive issue, it was every jinchuuriki's worst nightmare and it hurt ten times more for a jinchuuriki than it did for a normal person. However, because she had dealt with it her entire life, it also made her strong enough not to let it overwhelm her, especially now that she had a loving husband and a beautiful daughter to love and cherish.

"Alright. There is no _real reason _for visiting, as both reasons are of equal importance to us. But there was another reason..." Minato said with a poker face, simply refusing to show any form of weakness to what he now knew for a sure was an enemy.

"And that would be?" Fugaku asked retorically.

"There is going to be a kage summit in exactly a month from now. The maximum that a kage can bring is four bodyguards. Right now, I have three bodyguards that have already agreed to accompany me. Those are Jiraiya-sensei, Kushi-chan, and Hyuga Hiashi. I am short of one body guard..." Minato trailled off suggestively.

"A sannin, an Uzumaki, and a Hyuga...? You want to display the power of Konoha in order to ward off any attempts on yourself and Konoha as a whole by showing off our most powerful and prestigious clans. You want an Uchiha as the fourth member of your team...its a brilliant plan, Hokage-sama." an impressed Itachi commended.

"Heh, so you were able to see the real intention behind my choices, you have a good mind, Itachi-kun. You know, I don't have a student anymore, and I don't have a successor either. Are you by any chance interested in the title, Itachi-kun?" Minato asked curiously.

_'It's clear now that there is no chance of salvaging anything with the older generation. But perhaps something can be done for the young ones. Besides, Itachi is only eight years old and he has already made chunnin, and I've only heard words of praise and admiration from his comrades thus far. It would not be a bad idea to have someone of his calibre on my side.' _Minato thought.

"Are you offering to take me on as a student, Hokage-sama?" Itachi asked curiously.

"Well, I'd like us to have that talk first, I will make my decision depending on how that goes. As the Hokage, I have many responsibilties, even if I take you in, I might not be able to be as active as a sensei as others are with their students, however, I can still help in one way or another." Minato replied.

"Sounds good to me. Thank you for this opportunity, Hokage-sama." Itachi said with a small bow of the head.

_'Minato, what are you up to...?' _Mikoto thought wearily.

_'Hehehehe! What an idiot, I could not have asked for a better situation for us. I've been wondering how to go about planting a spy into the enemy ranks, to think that the Hokage himself would give me such an opportunity with open arms...? It almost sounds too good to be true!' _Fugaku thought happily.

"Ahem, anyway, I accept your offer, I will become your fourth bodyguard." Fugaku said with a cocky smirk.

_'If all goes well, I might even be able to pass on a message to the Tsuchikage Onoki. It will be difficult to gain control of Konoha with Minato and a perfect jinchuuriki like Kushina leading their ranks. There's also Danzo and Hiruzen to think about, and even that Jiraiya. If I can get someone to attack from the outside while we attack from within, our chances could increase exponentially. If Onoki doesn't refuse us, I could even get him to convince the raikage to join our cause.' _Fugaku thought giddily.

"Actually, I was going to ask you to give your blessing for me to take Uchiha Shishui as my fourth bodyguard." Minato said with an exterior poker face, however, adopting a mental smirk as well.

_'Serves you right you pompous assholes!' _Minato thought when he saw the shocked, embarrassed, and pissed off expression on Fugaku's and Mikoto's face. He also didn't miss Uchiha Sasuke's attempts to contain his laughter and embarrassment, nor did he miss the small smile on Itachi's.

_'Minato-kun, nice one dattebane!" _Kushina thought with a vengeful but joyful heart.

"W-what is the meaning of this, Minato?" Fugaku asked with barely contained rage.

"That's Hokage-sama to you, Fugaku-san." Kushina said with narrowed eyes.

"..."

"It's simple, after me, Shishui is the fastest shinobi in the village next to Kushina in her nine-tailed cloak. The aim here is to use combination attacks at unreadable speeds to deal with any potential attacks against us. Also, Shishui is the best genjutsu user in the elemental nations, not only will he will be able to protect us from genjutsu attacks, but his genjutsu offensive abilities will give us an overwhelming advantage over the enemy. He is simply the best choice whichever way you look at it." Minato explained calmly.

"..." Fugaku was left completely speechless, it was embarrassing and even degrading that the Hokage chose the Hyuga clan head to join his bodyguard forces but a mere sixteen year old from the Uchiha clan instead of him, the clan head. However, there was no logical counter that Fugaku could bring up against Minato's analysis, nor was there any reasonable justification that he could present to accuse Minato of undermining his clan head status. As much as he felt insulted, Fugaku knew that there was nothing he could do but to accept the Hokage's decision. It wasn't even like he could refuse him anyway, the Hokage's request was a mere gesture of friendship and courtesy, Minato didn't really need his permission to take Shishui with him.

Bearing that in mind, Fugaku found that he had no choice but to submit to the Hokage's will, even if he felt like nothing less than throwing the Hokage and his wife to hell and out of his house. However, it didn't really matter that much in the long run, Shishui was one of the most loyal members of the Uchiha clan, he would just have to deligate his objectives to the Uchiha prodigy, that was the only thing he could do now anyway.

"Fine, I will be sure to inform Shishui of this most honourable duty that has been bestowed upon him. I'm sure he will be very pleased...his father would have been proud." Fugaku answered stiffly.

"Thank you for your co-operation, Fugaku-san. It's quite late though, Natsumi-chan is probably worried sick about us. We will take our leave now, thank you for the wonderful dinner." Minato said as he and his wife stood up in preparation to depart from the Uchiha residence, their hands linked together affectionately, showing the love and unity between the members of the Uzumaki family.

"You know the way out." Mikoto snapped as she got up and left the room ubruptly, however, not before staring at the two intertwined hands of the couple with a strange expression. Fugaku on the other hand didn't say anything, simply staring at the two and waiting patiently for them to make their way out of his damn house.

"I will see you soon, Hokage-sama." Itachi said with a respectful bow before walking out of the room with little Sasuke in hand, the young, innocent Uchiha waving his hand happily at the couple before disappearing around the corner.

**00000000000**

**Kage Summit: One Month Later...**

"Aaarg! Where the hell is the Mizukage! How dare he make me wait for so long!" The Raikage, Ei, exclaimed furiously.

The Raikage is a large, tall man with the muscles of a body builder and brown skin, with a hulking physique and blonde, pushed back hair, wearing a belt around his waist with a large, gold coloured buckle with the face of a warthog inscribed on the buckle, blue shinobi pants and sandals, and nothing on his upper body but the Raikage's cloak and gold bracers on his lower arms.

Behind him were four of his body guards, his younger brother, the eigh tails jinchuuriki, Killer Bee, a young man with a similar physique to the Raikage himself and even a similar hairstyle, the main differences being that his brother wore black sunglasses, a white scalf around his neck, and the standard white, one strap armour of Kumo over his upper body, also carrying seven swords on his back.

The Raikage's second bodyguard was the sixteen year old jinchuuriki of the two tails, Nii Yugito. A young woman of godess like beauty, with long, silky blonde hair tied in a long pony tail and blue, cat-like eyes. She is a woman with a voluptous, feline like figure, wearing a purple top with the standard kumo armour on top, black gloves, black, tight fitting shinobi pants, and black ninja sandals. She also has a sword strapped to her back and kunai pouch strapped to her left thigh.

Behind her was Dodai, a man who was the third Raikage's assistant and tag-team partner before Ei took on that responsibility, with stern facial features, short, dark coloured, and spiky hair obscured by a stylized shinobi forehead protector in the form of a military hat and a small goatie. He is also wearing an eyepatch over his left eye with the kanji for lightning inscribed on it and the standard shinobi outfit of Kumo.

Next to him was Mabui, currently holding the position of Raikage's assistant, a beautifull woman with silver coloured hair and chocolate brown skin, wearing a grey two piece outfit with a short skirt and black shorts underneath the skirt, with the the standard kumo armour worn above her short sleeved top.

"Still such an unruly child, even as the Raikage. Hn, kids have no manners nowadays." Onoki said snidely, adopting an amused smirk with mischief dancing in his eyes, the effect being the laughter of his own bodyguard entourage, an entourage consisting of his son, Kitsuchi, Gari of the Exposive Release, and, standing in front of those two, the two jinchuuriki of Iwa, Roshi of the four tails, and Han of the five tails, all four men with incredibly muscular physique, even Gari, the smallest of the Tsuchikage's bodyguards.

_'What dispicable looking men, they all look like a gang of thugs, the Tsuchikage included.' _Mabui thought with disgust.

"I'd watch my mouth if I were you, Onoki. I'm not afraid to kill you after you betrayed the old man!" The Raikage threatened.

"Now now, don't be so short-sighted, Raikage. I made your father into a legend. Your father fought 10 000 of my men, and only less than a thousand returned home alive. I gave him a worthy death for a shinobi, wrote his name into shinobi folklore. You should show me a little more gratitude." The Tsuchikage, Onoki, said with a sinister and mischievious smirk.

"Why you...!"

"Enough!" Minato, the Hokage, exclaimed furiously, releasing enough dose of killing intent and chakra that even some parts of the room started cracking and falling apart, instantly silencing and freezing everyone in the summit in their place.

"This is not a shinobi academy playground, your behaviour is belittling the title of kage. Show a little respect for the title will you? If you can't do that, than at least show a little self-respect and stop dragging your names in the mud." Minato said with an intense and malicious gaze, almost as if scolding a bunch of children in a classroom.

"..."

"..."

"..."

_'What a strong chakra and aura, if it wasn't obvious before, than it is definitely obvious now. Namikaze Minato is of direct descent to the Senju clan, probably that bastard Tobirama's heir, or grand heir. And he has taken that troublesome Hiraishin technique to a level far beyond Tobirama ever could have.' _Onoki thought furiously, however choosing to remain silent for now.

Onoki would never admit it in a million years, but he was scared of the young Namikaze, his chakra alone was enough to warrant caution and his abilities and intelligence were something from nightmares. Also, the boy reminded him too much of Tobirama, so much so that Onoki had ordered his armies to retreat as soon as he'd heard of the Fourth Hokage's exploits in the third shinobi war. Onoki didn't think that he was completely outmatched, he was powerful in his own right and had bags more experience than the kid. However, the possibility of losing and dying was too high for him to take the risk. Minato's entourage was no piece of cake either. Jiraiya of the legendary sannin, Uzumaki Kushina the red devil and perfect jinchuuriki of the fox spirit, Shunshin no Uchiha Shishui, the best genjutsu practitioner in the elemental nations, and Hyuga Hiashi, the clan head of the clan possessing the deadly all-seeing byakugan. Attacking this man or Konoha in fact was a risk too great to take, there was a lot to lose and the chance of losing was too great. However, Onoki was confident that his own strength and reputation, and that of his entourage would also ward off the Hokage from throwing the first punch.If anything, the gap between the Kumo, Konoha, and Kumo entourage was not very big, all three contingents possessed an overwhelming level of skill and power, enough to keep them away from attacking each other needlessly.

_'Right now, the weakest of the big five are Suna and Kiri. However, Suna is off limits because of their recent alliance treaty to Konoha.' _Onoki thought with a glance at the fourth Kazekage and his entourage, an entourage consisting of Baki the Wind Blade, Pakura of the Scorch Release, puppeteer and medical expert, Lady Chiyo, and lastly, the three year old Shukaku's jinchuuriki, Sabaku no Gaara.

_'The Yondaime Kazekage is the only one with the ability to restrain Shukaku, he must have brought the kid with him because he was afraid that Suna would be destroyed if Shukaku broke lose in his absence.' _Onoki theorized.

"Thank you for your co-operation, Raikage-dono, Tsuchikage-dono. Hokage-dono, I appreciate your assitance, however, you will have to pay for the damages that your efforts have caused to the building. I hope this won't be a problem for you, Hokage-dono..." Mifune trailed off with a threatening undertone, causing the Raikage and the Tsuchikage to smirk at the Hokage's scolding at the hands of the emperor of Iron Country.

"Ummm...hehehe! Well, I guess I have no choice but to pay it up." Minato replied with a goofy smile while scratching the back of his head with a nervous laugh.

_'Hehe! Even he isn't brave or stupid enough to defy Iron Country's emperor.' _ The Raikage Ei thought with a triumphant smirk.

And it was true, none of the five kage, even with their powerful military forces would dare to attack Iron Country. Iron Country was bigger than the five great nations combined with a samurai force twice as big in numbers. No matter how powerful you were, no one was strong enough to take out a well trained and organised force of that size alone. It would probably take the combined efforts of Kumo, Konoha, and Iwa to defeat them, nations that would probably never be able to put their differences aside long enough to form an effective alliance, or so the Raikage thought.

"I will hold you to your word than, Hokage-dono." Mifune said, now adopting a more respectful tone.

"Of course, Mifune-sama." Minato replied with a respectful bow.

_'Heh, it's funny how something as small and insignificant as a smile can help someone to avoid trouble.' _Jiraiya thought with a small shake of the head.

"In any case, we've been waiting for three hours now, it doesn't seem like the Mizukage will be able to join us today. We will therefore proceed without him..." Mifune broke off mid-sentence, quickly grabbing the hilt of his sword and preparing for battle, along with everyone else in the room, as a the very fabric of space itself tore open in a manner reminiscent of a slashed throat in the area in front of Kiri's flag and behind the Mizukage's seat.

_'That jutsu...it's him!' _Minato thought with wide eyes.

_'That chakra and that justu...I can't believe it, Naruto-kun! What is he doing here?' _Kushina thought with a combination of emotions, nervousness, happiness, and excitement at the forefront of those emotions.

"Hokage! Tell me this is another one of your space-time ninjutsu?" The Raikage asked wearily.

"The chakra coming from the jutsu is powerful, but it's not his." Yugito said with an intense and weary expression, her body positioned in a cat like battle stance in anticipation of a possible battle to come.

"Please be at ease, fellow Kages, Mifune-sama. It is only I, the Mizukage and my entourage, we mean you no harm." a young voice from inside the portal reverberated around the room.

_'That voice, it sounds deeper, and older, but I'd recognise it anywhere! It's him, it's really him!' _Kushina thought happily.

"N-Naruto-kun, is that you?" Kushina shouted out with a voice full of joy and hope.

_'Naruto...?' _Jiraiya thought suspiciously.

"Yes...yes it is I. It's been a long time, Kushina-sama." Naruto said with a voice full of amusement and delight as well, still speaking from within the dark space-time dimension.

"Naruto? Who is this Naruto, Uzumaki-dono?" Mifune asked curiously.

"He is...well..."

"I will introduce myself formerly and appropriately soon enough, Mifune-dono, when you and everyone else lower your guard and have assured me that neither you or any of the other Kages will attack us without provocation." Naruto cut in smoothly.

"Uzumaki-dono? You and this man seem to have some kind of relationship. Is he a man we can trust?" Mifune asked curiously.

"He saved my life once before, he is a noble man, you can definitely trust him." Kushina said with a voice full of admiration.

"You haven't changed at all have you, Kushina-sama, still such a pure hearted angel." Naruto said from within the dark abyss, causing Kushina to blush furiously.

"Hokage-dono, is this true?" Mifune asked skeptically.

"Yes. If it wasn't for this man, Kushina-chan might have been dead right now, we might both have been dead. Trust is a strong word in the shinobi world, but this man deserves the benefit of the doubt." The Hokage replied with a grave tone, shocking everyone in the room, Jiraiya included with his words, no one quite able to believe that this mysterious man could possibly be that powerful, enough so that the boogyman-like Fourth Hokage, the man with a flee on sight order on his head, would attribute his continued existence to him.

_'Minato, what have you been hiding from me?' _Jiraiya thought irritably.

Oh how he hated being left out of the loop, not only did it just generally piss him off, but it was bad for his reputation as a spymaster to be left out of any big secret. If no one told him, he was supposed to find out all on his own, it pissed him off when he had not so much as a clue as to what people were talking about, especially people who were that close to him.

"Fair enough, everyone, lower your weapons and return to your positions. It is the only way we will be able to confirm that this man is really the Mizukage or not." Mifune ordered.

The other kage did not hesitate to return to their seats, neither did their body guards waste anytime returning to their positions and sheathing their weapons, not because they trusted this mysterious individual or anything, but because the damn suspense was too much to take anymore, frankly, it was killing them.

"Alright, your wish has been granted Naruto-dono, now please come forth and show yourself." Mifune said calmly.

"Of course, Mifune-dono." Naruto said as he walked to the edge of the portal, standing at the edge for only a second before jumping down onto the floor, right next to his seat.

"Good afternoon, everyone. For those of you that know not of me, I am the Godaime Mizukage, Uzumaki Naruto." The blonde Uzumaki said with a respectful bow of the head.

"B-but, you're just a kid, you can't possibly be any older than I am!" Yugito exclaimed with an incredulous expression, pointing a shaky and accusing finger at the blonde Uzumaki.

"Nevermind that, take a closer look at him, Yugito! Doesn't he kind of look like the Fourth Hokage." Mabui said with an equally shocked expression.

"You have no idea how many times I've heard that, Mabui-san." Naruto said with a playful smile, almost causing the two kunoichi to flinch at his razor sharp, shark-like teeth.

"Y-you...how do you know my name?" Mabui asked suspiciously.

"I know a lot of things, I am the Mizukage after all." Naruto said as he put his Kage hat on the table.

"Uzumaki Naruto? That can't possibly be your real name, you don't look anything like an Uzumaki!" Onoki accused with a suspicious glare.

"I can assure you that I am indeed an Uzumaki, you can even ask Hokage-dono and Kushina-sama, they will varify everything for you." Naruto said casually, causing everyone to stare at the husband and wife expectantly.

"It is true, Mizukage-dono is without a doubt an Uzumaki." Minato answered with a tense expression.

"Naruto-kun is my biological cousin, he is an Uzumaki without a doubt." Kushina said with a confident smile.

"Hmmm...fine, however, last time I checked, Yagura, the Sanbi Jinchuuriki was the Mizukage. Where is he now?" Ei demanded.

"Yondaime-sama huh, well, I left him back home in Kiri, he's watching over the village in my absence." Naruto replied simply.

"We need more evidence, wearing a Kiri forehead protector and carrying a Kage's hat is not enough evidence that you really are the Mizukage. At least, if you had come here with your entourage, we would be able to discern by their identities and their testimonies if you really are the Mizukage." The Kazekage said.

_'He brought a three year old Gaara to a summit...I'd be angry if I didn't understand his reasons. But his is, all things considered, the right call. He is after all the only one that can restrain Shukaku, he has to be close to Gaara at all times.' _Naruto thought as soon as he saw the site of a young Gaara standing next to the Kazekage.

"My entourage is here with me, let me introduce them to you. My newly wedded wife, Uzumaki Terumi Mei." Naruto said theotrically, with the seductive redhead jumping out of the portal and landing on the blonde's right hand side, causing everyone to stare at the couple in disbelief.

"Yondaime-sama's cousin, and rokubi jinchuuriki, Utakata." Naruto said as Utakata jumped out of the portal to land on his left side.

"Second seat in the Shinobi Swordsmen of the Mist and wielder of the great evil sword Samehada, Hozuki Mangetsu. Also known as the Water Monster Of Kiri and the tailless bijuu." Naruto said, Hozuki Mangetsu jumping out of the portal and landing a short distance next to Mei.

"Hello there, everyone!" Mangetsu waved casually, smiling mischieviously at the group of powerful warriors in their own right, showing off his razor sharp shark-like teeth in the process. He still wore the same old outfit, the only difference being that he now carried Samehada on his back, no longer a wielder of the Hiramekei or the Nubari, although the swords were still in his posession.

"What happened to Hoshigaki Kisame? I thought that he was the wielder of Samehada?" Onoki asked with eyes narrowed in curiosity and suspition.

"He had some loyalty issues, and so we took care of him. You won't be hearing from him again, ever!" Naruto said with a dark undertone.

"Did you do the deed yourself?" The raikage, Ei, asked curiously.

_'Trying to gauge my strength I see, hn, nice try, raikage.' _Naruto thought.

"Of course not. Some of the perkes of being a Kage are that you have the authority to get other people to do your job for you." Naruto said jokingly.

"If you were not the one who killed Kisame, than who did?" The Yondaime Kazekage asked with a veil of apathy.

"How interesting that you should ask that, that person happens to be the one guard of mine that I have yet to introduce. Everyone, meet my last but not least body guard, Hiruko of the fuingan, also the honorary member and clan head of the Bishiteki clan." Naruto anounced as a short man with a long, white cloak, long white hair tied in a pony tail, and red glowing eyes, jumped out of the than still open portal, which closed up and disappeared as soon as he was out.

"I don't believe it, Hiruko...!" Jiraiya exclaimed in surprise.

"Hello, Jiraiya...!" Hiruko said with a sinister smirk behind his high collared cloak

**End Chapter**

**Perhaps a bit rushed, I apologize for that. **

**In any case, I'm wondering what yaw think about Kakashi's battle with Zetsu? **

**I think Zetsu's powers are severely downplayed in the manga, I've always thought that with prep time, Zetsu can actually beat almost everybody. And he should have a massive amount of chakra too given who's cells he is almost entirely made of.**

**White Zetsu has always struck me as average in terms of intellect and knowledge, not stupid, not at all, but nothing special in that department.**

**Black Zetsu however, seems like the logical and intelligent type. The type that plans many steps ahead and sets everything up before he aproaches his opponent. **

**He does have more jutsu and history knowledge than white Zetsu, I know that much. The battle between Sasuke and Itachi was enough for me to conclude this. Black Zetsu knew what the Totsuka Blade and Yata Mirror was whereas White Zetsu had no idea what it was. This leads me to believe that they don't always stay glued together and probably spend half their time seperated, or maybe it's because Black Zetsu has Madara's will, maybe that means that some knowledge is passed on as well, I don't know.**

**Mei is younger here and she's had a taste of love and loss recently, so I figured it would take a while for her to mellow out.**

**I've been deliberating on whether to make her an Uzumaki decendent or part Uzumaki. She certainly fits the profile, but I'm not quite sure about that, admiteddly, it would be quite a bit cliche. I'll probably make a decision by the time I post the next chapter though.**

**Some of you might be wondering why Naruto made that grand entrance and why he was giving out some information (Not a lot really) about his body guards while grandeously introducing them. At first glance, it appears like he is childish and still an attention seeking idiot, but that's not it though, it will be explained in the upcoming chapter, though I don't think his reasons should be that hard to discern.**

**The Uchiha, well, yaw already know Tobi's plans for them, but it won't be that straight forward.**

**Tobi recruiting Yugao for his plans, and she turns out to be a Senju. Yeah this is what happens when one fiddles with the past. Naruto's actions are causing Tobi to change his plans drastically. He no longer plans to annihilate the Uchiha, but actually wants to bring them into his circle and thrust their curse of hate against the elemental nations. **

**With the Yugao thing, try to imagine that Tobi knew about her in canon too, but was unwilling or found it unneccessary to bring her into his circle of plans. But now that Naruto has interfered and his plans have been ruined, he is going all out to make the best of a bad situation. Minato is alive and Naruto is a threat, so he is a little desperate but more determined than ever.**

**I know Yugao's heritage and all kinda seems like an asspull, but I truly believe that Tobirama was the kind of man who would do something like this. He has been portrayed as an idealist yes, but he is far more militant and realistic than any other Hokage, and ruthless too. And he is not afraid to do something 'bad' for the 'so called' greater good (edo tensei, Uchiha isolation).**

**Namikaze Minato. Ok even in canon this wouldn't be farfetched at all. They kinda look alike, they both have FTG, they both have the same tracking technique, and they are both strong sensor types (Minato was able to sense Naruto from another country and was even able to identify the difference in his chakra, hence concluding that he was using BM mode and Tobirama sensed Madara from the same distance at the same time). I believe he's a senju, or has some relation to them. But anyway, that's how it is here.**

**Okay that AN was way too long, I'll stop right there. Thanks for reading and hope yaw enjoyed it. **


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